


The Most Intense Witch (her age)

by laenamoradadeHERMIONE (laenamorada)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, M/M, Ron Weasley Bashing, Sex, Time Travel, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:28:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 43,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23767720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laenamorada/pseuds/laenamoradadeHERMIONE
Summary: I am fiddling with the time turner around my neck again.  It still turns, even if it fails to take me back. There is no sand on it. There never was since I found it. One twist, three spins, twist counter clock wise, three backwards spins, one twist, and I continue the metronome as my mind wonders.What would I change if I knew that it would be good for everyone? Nothing, at the moment.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Severus Snape, Hermione Granger/Viktor Krum, Lavender Brown/Ron Weasley
Comments: 17
Kudos: 21





	1. The Most Popular Wizard in Europe

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Firsly, This all belongs to the genius mastermind that is Rowling.  
> Secondly, there are and will be lemons. No, this is not PWP. First chapter might mislead.  
> Third, I have a rough draft, and hope to post weekly. Hopefully COVID19 will help me write more.  
> Fourth, I hope you enjoy it !

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seize the moment. There is flies. Stamp the present with an act. Dare to make your dreams a fact.
> 
> -CISV Song

**Chapter 1 – The Most Popular Wizard in Europe**

“You still turn me on, are you seeing this?” He asks. But off course I’m not seeing anything. My fogged brain is barely translating anything else than his dick riding my pussy, hitting my cervix in just that way and, fuck, I just made a mess. I squirted all over the floor where I am bent over the edge of the bed, he’s still fucking, he’s still going. Gods, do I enjoy this. My thoughts are murky, he is saying something but I barely compute as I am still shivering and shaking from that amazing sex.

“If I fucked every girl like I just fucked you, I’d be the most popular wizard in Europe” My body didn’t react to that phrase, it barely registered. He left to take the condom to the trash, wash himself a little too, from my juices and his. I squat by the side of the bed, feeling a cramp from how deliciously he hit my cervix. Its not just the big dick nor the great sex. But I have to explain how we got here in the first place.

* * *

Last week it was him. My phone signaled an incoming message, and as usually I directed my attention to the phone, the conversation so far was simple small talk, niceties, how have you been, hows your cat, simple, as friends do.

_I need a good blowjob._ I stared at the screen. _Like a good one. Not just good._ Two more messages arrived. Hermione, don’t do it, don’t do it. Yet my fingers and my quim betrayed me. _I know how to do those,_ I type and I send. _Like sloppy wet good?_ Send. _Yeah. How’s your schedule today?_ I read. _7pm, your place._

I glanced at the watch, a boxy thing that I inherited from my grandmother a while back. It’s muggle, so I have to turn it every day. It has gold details and a lacquered backing. Some might even say its a bit tacky, hell, my mother said so when she was about to throw it away. I saved it and now it comes with me to whatever office I have. Right now it’s on the third floor of the Ministry of Magic, front office of the Department of Mysteries. Last year it was as secretary to senior undersecretary Weasley in the Minister’s department. I much prefer this.

4:35. I go back to my cell phone and set an alarm for five thirty, just to make sure I don’t stay past my work schedule, which I might do sometimes, ok, a lot. But today I have plans.

* * *

Baby pink with a hint of a zebra print on the heel. My fifteen centimeter fuck me peep toes. He’s bound to like those. Hell, I love those. Some people would be worried about walking in that. Others would simple admire my derriere. Either way, they have not been in my wardrobe for that long. Most of the stuff in here, be it underwear or heels he has seen. I really shouldn’t care, whats the point of dressing up for him anyways? But I take my new favorite heels, hoping he’ll like the view. Hoping. No. I know he likes the view. In between leaving my office and now we did keep talking. I arrived yesterday from a business trip to Geneva. We had been texting. _You could’ve called anyone for this in these past few days. You sure know how to make a girl feel special._ We banter, we hide, we pretend we’re just friends. _They can’t suck dick for shit. It’s a specific talent._ In the end, we both still like each other. We misconstrue it. We don’t admit it. We pretend a lot of things. We omit saying even more. And yes, a small part of me likes the attention. Not that I am lacking on getting a partners. I dated a guy for four months last year. I play with my food and then decided I wanted Jamaican instead of Italian. I enjoy being single. And I know he does too. Problem is, we, he and I, we always end up back in bed again. And, yes, sorry, it really is that good.

I arrive at his place and we talk. He offers something to drink and we sit side by side on his bed. His hand automatically reached for my cheek and I turn to face the other way. My breasts perk up for attention. My hand reaches his thigh. Chit chat doesn’t last long. Soon, I am on my knees between his legs. His clothes are gone. Mine are still on. I start kissing his knees and make my way up, nip, kiss, lick, kiss, long lick, tease, bite, when I reach his butt he lets his head fall back on the bed. He has this very sensitive spot on his hip, he squirms when I get there so I dedicate more time to it. Then I keep going up to his other sensitive spot: his nipples. I play and nip delicately and I am soon hearing small moans and sighs from him as well.

“Lose the shirt” he says, and we take the moment to get into more comfortable positions. He lays down the bed, completely naked. I take a moment to appreciate his olive skin, black hair that starts below his belly button and swirls down until the part where he shaved. I smirk appreciatively at that. I quickly take my shirt of to show off my new magenta and pink bralette I got in Geneva. His full lips twist when I lower myself to his pelvis, laying on my belly between his legs. I fold my legs instead of letting them dangle, my heels are still on, and I managed to find a somewhat matching bra. I look at his equipment, but ignore it in favor of his thighs, taking my time and enjoying watching him squirm.

“Hermione, please” he says all of a sudden. I look up, ignoring what I was just doing to look at him.

“You want me to stop, honey?” I ask.

“No, damn, I had never seen you sexier than right now” I allow him a small lick on the tip of his wang in appreciation of the compliment. He moans loudly. His penus wants more. But not yet. I turn my attention to his testicles and lick them until they are quite and very covered with spit, slick and wet. I let my hands play and turn up to his perineum.

“Get on your side” I demand. He shifts to the left side and goes to turn completely around with his ass facing me. “No, stay on your left” I have a good access to lick his butt and dick from here, also to spank if I want to. It’s a good position. I let my tongue wonder to his behind and back to his balls. Then, with everything quite wet I finally lick his wang before taking it all into my mouth, sucking for all I am worth. My hands go to his testicles and massage them gently. I hear muffled sounds from above me, and I hope its an indication that he is enjoying himself. So far, he has not interrupted me from doing all of this. Thats always a good sign. I bob my head up and down, pausing in between to take a breath and let some spit flow down to his penus and testicles. Suddenly his hand is on my shoulder and tentatively reaching for my breast. I swat it away, let me concentrate on you, and he goes back. I press the base of his penus, but it is already as erect as it is going to get. I can barely fit him all in my mouth so I relax my throat at allow it to enter all the way back, then I press from my throat and with my hand. He lets out a delicious hiss. I repeat.

“Babe, I am going to…” he starts to say, I stop and look at him. His eyes are half lidded, his mouth is hanging open and one hand is gripping the sheets while the other rests somewhat peacefully yet warningly on my shoulder. “I don’t want to come yet” he says. I nod and lean back down to his hips, those slim delicate hips that I know too well and play with everything except his penus. While I am down there I ask him a simple question.

“Where do you want to come? In my mouth?” I was still slow and sensuously, but while he chose his answer I finally picked up the rhythm and bobbed mercilessly on his penus. Sucking hard and deep. He’s not going to come yet. I can feel at his base that I still have time.

“Yes” a single syllable but with a very strong taste. He stands up from the bed and I sit on the bed, angled to keep sucking. I suck but let his hand take the reins. My hands are still on him, one searching the canal from which I can tell when its coming and the other massages his balls. He grunts. I close my eyes and open my mouth as wide as I can. He squirts a rather large load on my mouth. I lick my lips and swallow while he watches.

He leans on me, and soon sits besides me, pulling me to his side as he lays down again. He kissed my forehead and I burrow into his side, resting my head on his chest I listen to his rapid heart beat. My eyes are closed again, and I try to drift off to sleep like I know he will do any second.

He holds me close and drifts off to visit Morpheus.

I lay still on his arms, I don’t know if he sleeps badly all the time like I do. I do know he used to sleep during the day and work from home at night. I don’t know if he has managed to kick that habit yet. I look up at his restful face, shifting carefully so I don’t wake him. However I do, his only response is to pull me closer. I let one hand wonder over his bare chest, stroking his chest hair and grazing his skin. He sighs in appreciation. _Don’t go,_ I imagine him saying. I stay still and count his heartbeats.

I’m not able to fall asleep. I let him rest for a while before waking him to have sex.

* * *

My alarm goes off at twelve. I go to get up to get it, his arms brace around me. I kiss his cheek.

“Don’t worry, ten more minutes and then I leave” I whisper to him. My index finger flickers on his lower lip. He instinctively kisses it. I smile and sigh, hoping he will let me leave. I had not told Harry nor Ron where I went tonight and they might ask questions if I spent the night away. A drink with a friend I can say. Spending the night leads to more questions. I sink into his warmth and close my eyes.

Buzzing brings me back to reality and I disentangle myself from my lover. Time’s out. I reach a hand to my neck, where a broken time turner I had found in my new Department rests. I have an idea to fix it. But I don’t know why.

Everything is good. Voldemort is dead. Harry and Ginny are soon to be married. Ron and Lavander also seem to be hitting it off again. Viktor and I…. well, I guess we grew apart and we grew closer at the same time. Not everything is meant to be. Nor would I change anything about us.

Being in a relationship is beautiful. But being single is more fun. Having the capacity to do this every so often is even better. He starts to put some clothes on too, to take me to the closest apparition point. We don’t use the floo, that can be tracked. I watch as his penus hides behinds his briefs and glance away when he raises an eyebrow in question. He puts on a pair of jeans and a t shirt. I had lost my pants at some point, but we didn’t have sex today. I dressed as well, and then checked myself in the mirror. Some other day we might even share a shower. Meanwhile, I cast a cleansing and refreshing charm on myself and him. I go to my bag and get dressed.

“I like your heels” he says as I put them on.

“I’m glad you like them, honey” I say teasingly. Even with such tall heels I don’t even reach his nose. He grabs my bum after I put my pants on.

“Tease” he says to me.

“But you already knew that!” I say. And its true. We know nearly everything about the other. And days like these, sometimes I do wish, however selfishly, that my world was just us.

We walk in comfortable silence to the apparition spot. Without a word, I turn on the spot. When I arrive on the other side, a second later he is by my side. I look at him annoyed.

“I can take care of myself, I don’t need you to check that I get home”

“I want to” I roll my eyes and walk towards my house. Once I reach the wards, he won’t be able to see me. Before opening the doors, I take of my shoes and perform a second cleansing charm and add some perfume. I look back and he is already gone.

Surreal. Everytime we see each other I feel like I am in another world. I take the time turner in my hand again think. The present and the past are perfect. But what about the future?

I throw away all my daydreams and open the door. I tiptoe to my room and I am asleep as soon as my head hits the bed.


	2. The Best Cook Wizard or Muggle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Time waits for no one"  
> \- The girl who leapt through time, anime movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

“You were out late” Ron accuses me over my breakfast tea. I had already eaten some fruit and yogurt, and the tea was just the right temperature. Earl grey with a dash of lemon. I am breathing in the scent when Ron interrupted my breakfast.

“Yes, Ron, I went out with some muggle friends” I say off handedly. My phone choses that moment to buzz. _Need to see you today._ I read a text from Ginny and unlock my phone to write a quick reply. _Lunch?_

_Yes. I already booked a private table at the Leaky._

“I’m sorry what?” I had stopped listening to Ron as I replied to Ginny. He scowled at my phone.

“That damn thing.” he huffed. “I said, who with?” he said again.

“Marie, Alex and Erika” I say, probably the first names that came to mind, but what gives? He barely knows my muggle friends.

“Ok.”

“How’s Lavander?” I ask sweetly and hid behind my mug as I take a sip. He turns beet red and opens the fridge. He forgot to cast a Silencing Charm last weekend. Really, ginger bum or ginger bun, whichever it was, was just to easy to ridicule. And Harry and I have a laugh Sunday morning while we played chess, which Harry usually wins and then Scrabble, which I usually win in the library. We are early risers. Ron isn’t. Lavander isn’t either.

“Hush” he said. Harry had already left for training. He’d be back soon to get ready for work. I finished my tea, washed the mug and left it to dry. “It’s just, it was a weekday and you came back after midnight” he said.

“Sorry, Dad” I said as I made my way to my room to grab my bag before leaving. I came back.

“I’ll be home early today, Dad” I say rashly as I grab my phone and kiss his cheek goodbye.

“Are you seeing someone?” he asks.

“Nothing serious, and not yesterday anyways” I reply, not really in the mood for questions. Harry, if suspicious, would’ve just asked if I was having fun. Then again, he was always the more observant of the two. Oh yes, lots of fun.

I took the floo to the Ministry.

* * *

Since I work the front office, right now I mostly occupy myself in knowing who is working on what, who has access to what, what are the levels. I don’t have a project of my own at the moment and that is kinda starting to get on my nerves. My hands itched for some research. And the current situation with the time turner had me more intrigued than I cared to admit.

I opened the book registrar and did a quick spell of my own invention. One word and it would refer me to any book that contained it more than five times, enough to have at least a section dedicated to it. _Time-travel_. Eight titles glowed neon orange. I wrote down the names. I’d take them with me on my way out. No one needed them anyways. The study of time was also quite restricted within the Department of Mysteries, and no one was currently on it.

* * *

I am on top, slowly, deeply, and his left hand is on my boob, my right hand on his chest and his right hand on my hip. He throws his head back, eyes closed, and then looks at me through half-lidded eyes. He bucks his hips against mine, and I bend my knee into his leg, to stop him, I like the control of being on top.

“Keep going, just like that” he murmurs, I make out the words. I reach back and fondle him. He opens his eyes and makes eye contact with me. I read between the first and second glance, then he closes his eyes and opens his mouth, letting out an unexpected deep sound. I tense up around his cock and feel him cum inside me.

I keep thrusting, soon having an orgasm as well and then collapsing on his chest.

He is stroking my hair and my cheek when I wake up.

“What time is it?” I ask.

“Time for you to leave” he says, I nod, and start getting up. He holds me, does not let me move, tangling his limbs around mine.

“Wait” he says. I look at him, not worrried but knowing I had to leave.

* * *

Harry made lunch on our lazy sunday. There was no Weasley lunch today, so it was just us two. Ginny had a thing with former classmates.

The smell of basil and tomato filled the kitchen. I had chosen a nice white wine from the cellar and we are both sipping on it while Harry cooked. The casserole had tomato, eggplant, zucchini, squash and had a Mediterranean air about it. He really did know how to cook, and the available ingredients were even better.

“You’ve been going out a lot these last few weeks, someone worth mentioning?” he asks.

“Oh yeah, this guy, he makes me laugh, has great taste and the sex is the best I have ever had” I replied, finishing with a sip of wine.

“I thought you still said that Viktor was the best you ever had?” he replied.

“Maybe that was the case. New is always different” I replied.

“Or you’re shagging him again” he said, giving me specific glance, the when is it going to end glance. I don’t blush, but I do bit my lower lip. Was it that obvious?

“Or I’m shagging him again” I reply, not accepting everything. “Honestly, so what?”

“Doesn’t he want a family last I checked?” he asks. I said nothing, I want a career and have never been inclined towards reproduction. A partner would be nice, but that is about it. That’s why Viktor and I shag; but are not together. As compatible as we are in so many things, we have different long-term plans.

“It’s just shagging”

“It’s not just shagging with you two, you used to love him”

“Okay. I think that’s enough. Yes, I used to love him. Not anymore. We just have sex”

“And does he know that?” Sometimes, I am not entirely sure.

The timer goes off and Harry turns to produce a tender, mouth-watering tenderloin in the middle of a delicious ratatouille, there was a basil sauce on the stove pot to add to the meal. I produce plates, ignoring the question in favor of eating. Absolutely the best cook wizarding or muggle as far as I know.

“How’s work?” I ask after a few minutes,

* * *

I am fiddling with the time turner around my neck again. It still turns, even if it fails to take me back. There is no sand on it. There never was since I found it. One twist, three spins, twist counter clock wise, three backwards spins, one twist, and I continue the metronome as my mind wonders.

There was one book, Consequences of Time Traveling, which tried to explain Time as a flow that no matter what will correct itself. Like a River. However, there was another book, Will Set Right, that theorizes about how if you go far enough and affect an especially important moment in time, you can change the present. That just told me that no matter what the furthest back I could go back May third, 1998. Riddle would remain dead if I were going to interfere in anything.

Ginny’s predicament was a dumb reason to go back in time for. And more likely that not, that will happen over and over again. If she did it once she will do it again. It is not my fault magical contraception is not as reliable its muggle counter part nowadays.

What would I change if I knew that it would be good for everyone?

“Granger” I turned my head to the side. Despite anyone probably thinking that all workers of the Department of Mysteries are shrouded in, well, mystery, their investigations were quite mundane, easy to keep up with. I smiled at Master Howlett.

“Good afternoon, Master Howlett” My metronome went under my shirt. I shifted both my hands towards the eagle feather quill and short parchment for notes that laid on the antique mahogany desk that belonged to the entrance of the Department of Mysteries.

“I have had a premonition. There is a Death Eater that seeks revenge. Revenge on a woman. That is all I have been able to see so far.” He was not very forthcoming. I expected more information.

“Sir, would you like me to inform the Department of Magical Law Enforcement? Ask for their help?” I offered.

“Not now. Not yet. I saw something distinctive. The death took place in the Annual Remembrance Gala. The fifteenth Annual Remembrance Gala.” He saw a death happen that will happen in a year and a half from now? The fourteenth annual gala was in two weeks. I am supposed to write a speech for Harry.

“Sir, but it is the fourteenth gala that happens in three weeks.” Perhaps his premonition was off?

“No, no, I saw the number five many times. That has meaning. Five is a powerful number, not as powerful as three, but still powerful. The pentagram is used for summoning and alchemy. Each hand has five fingers. There are five elements. The Wu Xing.” I remember how important five is from Ancient Runes class. Now that is an interesting research topic. But the chances currently of getting inside his project were about as slim as finding a new secretary. I glanced at my grandmother’s clock.

“What is that monstrosity?” he asked, looking at my clock. It was unique, it needed a polish and it had seen better days about fifty years ago.

“It’s a muggle clock” I told him. “It was my grandmother’s. There is no magic in it”

“And batteries?” he asked. I shook my head and reached for it.

“This is a relic from before the time of batteries, I have to wind it up every day for it to have the correct time.” I showed him where I turned it on the back.

“Have you considered a charm?” he asked.

“I like it the way it is, Master Howlett.” Before he had a chance to notice that I was actually checking the time I redirected him to his previous conversation. “You were saying about the number five, sir”

“Write it down. Send it to the Master Supreme. She will know if my vision connects to anything else.” I nodded. “I will, sir, and I will keep you informed too.”

* * *

The tricky thing about the Department of Mysteries is that all the projects are somehow connected. Master Howlett works with Numerology and Divination, and his Numerology is a direct compliment to Mistress Belacqua’s investigation on Astronomy and multiple worlds. Then Master Bond’s investigation on, well, from what I understood it draws parallelisms to muggle’ quantum theory. And where you cannot tell something can happen until it happens throws in the question of a different decision, a different consequence producing diverging timelines. And it is Belacqua’s theory that those diverging timelines each correspond to a different world being created at every moment. Coming back to why how many worlds could possibly exist drawing a circle back to the field of Numerology.

Hogwarts does not teach Numerology. There was a small section of it in my Ancient Runes class and Divination class. It is a very abstract and diverse subject for teenagers, anyways.

Master Newton studies everything related to Time. He had seen the way she had looked at the broken time-turner and told her, “It’s nothing more than a pretty thing now, completely useless without its time sand and the spin mechanism broken.” She could keep it. “Don’t tinker with it, young lady” she was told in precaution. She hoped to be able to apprentice under him some day.

Right now, she was either scribing for one of the Masters or Mistresses, or looking through their text and research for references they needed. The library in here was impossible to imagine. There was a direct portal to the recovered files of the Library of Alexandria in wizarding Cairo. There were untranslated documents stolen from Mayan pyramids. And Master Zhou was a liaison from Beijing, given access to other documents from several centuries ago that somehow ended up in England, we won’t let them take them because they are too fragile to be transported, but he was conducting a translation and research for his team back in China.

She knew how many people worked in here. She knew who held rank. She knew her way around; the library was inside every chamber and every room. It interconnected. That is partly why she developed the searching spell: it only gave her the titles. When the library was so dispersed this helped to narrow down the search.

“Thank you, Granger” Master Howlett said and departed into his study once more.

She glanced at the watch again. It was six forty. She had been reading Consequences of Time Traveling when he appeared. She had been quite absorbed by it. The general rule she had memorized during her third year was very graphically described: from person’s killing themselves to person’s disappearing. _You must not be seen._

She placed a bookmark with the words One More Page printed in a bold letter and closed the book. She turned to the cell phone she had been neglecting and almost swore.

Ten new messages from four chats. Two missed calls.

The call’s were Ron, so she did not worry about that.

She had a message from Ginny. She had two messages from Harry. She had two messages from Mr. Weasley. One from Fleur, Bill and George. And two messages from Viktor.

She ignored the Weasley’s and went straight to Viktor’s message.

“Hey babe” she rolled her eyes. “What’s for dinner?” _How about shawarma and pussy?_ Click and send. A small smile graced her face, one that nobody else saw.

She then turned to Ginny’s message: _Wish me luck! I am going to tell him today._

Then Harry’s message. _Ginny’s pregnant. I am going to be a father._ Followed by a very eloquent: _Shite._

The rest all read the same: _Ginny’s pregnant. Did you know?, Ginny’s pregnant, I’m going to be an uncle. Ginny’s pregnant. Couldn’t they wait until they got married? Ginny’s pregnant. Please come to the Burrow at your earliest convenience._ The last message from Mr. Weasley was strange.

She was pretty sure everyone was bound to be very excited. She only replied to Mr. Weasley: _I will be there in twenty minutes._

There was nothing that could possible be wrong with Ginny. 


	3. The Unknown Witch Writer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “In the theory of relativity there is no unique absolute time, but instead each individual has his own personal measure of time that depends on where he is and how he is moving."  
> ― Stephen Hawking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing,

**Chapter 3 – The** **Unknown Witch Writer**

I’m fucked, she thought to herself. She had just drawn a Q, a terrible letter to get this far along in the game. She glanced at the game board. There was no visible U to help her out. She raised her head further to see the smug grin on her oppponent’s face. It has been a terrible idea to introduce her to muggle board games. She used to always win at Scrabble, now, it was as if her opponent had an anagram spell to win every time. She settled for spelling ACHE, finally getting rid of a C that had been bothering her for a while, it crossed with Minerva’s HEAL. The game did not have many opportunities to place new words at the moment, other than monosyllables that did not earn her many points. She huffed. Minerva laughed.

“Hermione, dear, you are making this too easy for me” She added up her measly 9 points for the last word.

“It’s just a bad draw, the letters are not helping me today.” She agreed. She loved this game, had grown up playing it with her parents. Nowadays she could have a single thought of them without missing them and without a fierce sense of regret overcoming her. They were safe. They had their own life now without her. And she had her own life without them as well. She lived with Harry, Ron and Ginny in the Burrow. She visited Viktor often. She also, although sporadically, visited Minerva, Filius and Septima at Hogwarts. Bathsheda, her old Ancient Runes Professor, had left Hogwarts soon after the war, had retired to the south of France, to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, and was a simple apparition away.

Minerva played PISTACHE with her previous word. She drew four words to replace the ones she played with ACHE. And there was her beautiful U. There was an I on the board that had been waiting for her. Quiz. Quid. Quim. Quip. Yes, she had a P. And there was a double word score as well.

“Quip. You had been holding on to that Q” she said. Hermione nodded.

“I had not been able to play it, much worse!” she exclaimed. “That would be 30 points for me”

“Yes, that still leaves you twelve points behind me” Minerva agreed. She paused to take a sip from her gin before her next play. The game only had about three rounds left. She placed a simple E in front of her word.

“Equip, well played”

“Hold on,” Minerva said. She proceeded to write EXIT.

“I’m not even going to add, I am utterly defeated” Hermione admitted.

“That is quite all right,” Minerva laughed. “Now, while we are almost finishing up here, tell me about Ginevra” she asked for the gossip.

“It’s going to be a boy. They want to name him James Sirius.” Minerva tried to conceal her gasp.

“I better retire before such a menace comes to Hogwarts” It was Hermione’s turn to laugh.

“Indeed” Hermione agreed. “It is also about time they start thinking of getting married anyways. That was Arthur’s concern when he and Mrs. Weasley first found out, that they would be having a child out of wedlock.”

“Well, some of us still wish for the old concept of family”

“Don’t let Neville and Seamus hear you say that, nor Luna for that matter.” Luna is a single mother to a beautiful 7-year-old boy named Tor, to date she had not mentioned the name of the father. Nor if the father himself knew of his existence.

“And what about you? Anybody new that you could someday marry?” Minerva tried for the hundredth time.

“Marriage is not for me.” She brushed her off. “But going back to where we started, Harry has had a ring in his pocket for three years. Ginny is the one that has been trying to postpone marrying for quite a while.”

“So there probably will be a wedding then.” Minerva sighed in relief.

“There will most definitely be a wedding.” Hermione admitted. Hermione placed three letters: R, E, S to spell Healers. “Soon” The headmistress played ROSES with the S she had used before. She went to take a new letter but found it empty. Great, now she had an E, A, P, T and L to finish the game.

“Minerva, excuse my curiosity and I know this question is going a long way back.” She had never asked before, she also never considered this a valid question. She had willingly given up on that opportunity. Maybe if she had not returned her Time Turner she could have done a lot of things to help a lot of people. Those alive or not. “Whatever happened to the time turner I used in third year?” she asked.

“Albus left it around her somewhere. The old hoot never told me exactly where.” She turned to look at the closest portrait, half expecting him to be snooping on her. Not today, at least.

“That should be returned to the Department. I know Master Newton would appreciate it” she told her.

“Hmm. Maybe the next smartest witch her age will need it as well to take all the electives” Minerva thought out loud. Hermione acquiesced and did no further questions on the matter. She played POLE on the O from ROSES. Minerva quickly placed ED on EXITED, leaving her with her final five letters. Hermione finished the game with PAT on the P from PISTACHE. She had lost.

Minerva relished the win, a smug smile on her face.

“I will win next time,” Hermione promised, but would not worry if she could not keep the promise.

“We shall see” Minerva replied. “Come then” She stood from her seat and lead Hermione towards the adyacent Headmistress office.

“Albus” The replica was sleeping. “Stop pretending, Albus. Now, tell me where the Time turner is.”

“Minerva, Hermione, how pleasant to see you.”

“Good evening, Headmaster Dumbledore” Hermione called from where she stood under the frame of the door. While being a student she had only been inside his office twice.

“There is a hollow book inside the Restricted Section. It’s called The Time Machine by H.G. Wells” he informed them both.

“That is in the Restricted Section?” Hermione asked

“As a precaution off course, nobody would look for it there.”

“Thank you, Albus.” Minerva cutted in.

“What are you going to do?” Albus asked.

“I am going to return it to the Department, Headmaster” Hermione assured him.

“You know the rules, Miss Granger,” he echoed what she had already been told before. _You must not be seen_ laid unsaid between them.

Minerva started walking towards the exit and the office’s spiral staircase. Hermione nodded once at Headmaster Dumbledore and followed Minerva.

Hermione could have walked blindfolded all the way to the Library. These halls had been her home for seven years. Her last year here had been very different, she was a student, a refugee and an assistant teacher all at the same time. Ginny had been Head Girl alongside Shane Nott, Slytherin, but not those Nott’s, being the corresponding Head Boy.

They almost bumped, well, as much as you can bump into a non-corporeal entity, into the Grey Lady.

“Headmistress” she greeted.

“Helena” Minerva smiled at her. The ghost continued down her path, but then paused.

“Headmistress, you should see to Sybill, I heard from the Fat Friar that she seemed out of sorts, and not her usual self.” She turned to face them again. She glanced at Hermione. Hermione had never spoken to the Ghost of Ravenclaw.

“Thank you, Helena. As soon as we are done our business, I shall seek her out”

“The centaurs said there was an unusual crossing this month” she mentioned.

Off course, Divination is more a field of the centaurs than humans, but they also fiercely guarded their observations. Hermione wondered if she had talked to them or had simply overheard.

“Well, I shall leave them be, and check on Sybill.” She replied. “Excuse me” and then they both continued to the entrance of the Library down the hall. Hermione kept her sturdy pace. If she had to guess, Minerva was excited to find the Timeturner.

Since it was in the middle of the school year, the Restricted Section was kept locked. Minerva herself unlocked the door and they went inside.

“I had an unlimited pass all through fourth year.” Hermione remembered. The Death Eater pretending to be Mad Eye Moody had given it to her. There was still some time until sunset, but the illumination was not enough to read by. They each took a side and illuminated with their wands to look for the book.

The Time Machine was nestled between Autour de la Lune by Jules Verne and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

“Muggle science fiction in the Restricted Section?” Hermione asked.

“Muggle?” Minerva asked. “I met Madame Shelley, she was a cuckoo. The Godwin family was as pureblood as a Black. Not a muggle at all. She left the wizarding world because she fell in love with a Muggle writer. And Professor Verne was a renowned explorer and pioneer in the ways of magical travel. All I remember about Wells is that he was for a while the Supreme Mugwump.” She summarized as she reached for his book. Hermione looked at the ageing book.

“Minerva, is that a First Edition?” Minerva placed the book on her palm and it flew open. A dusty and rusted Time turner laid between its pages. Minerva grabbed the gold chain and pulled the artifact towards the light.

“It is quite beautiful, isn’t it?” Minerva said to Hermione, intrigued.

“Yes, and powerful” Hermione reminded her. Hermione took the book from her and skimmed the first page.

“It’s a second edition” she deflated at the prospect. “This is extremely valuable in the muggle world, Minerva. Could sell for a thousand sterling or more.” 

“Yes, well, any book in here could fetch good money in the Muggle world. Oh, look at me, I must seem quite something looking at this like it is the one true ring.” Hermione smiled at the Tolkien reference. Minerva palmed the Time turner to give it back to Hermione. She took it and placed her in her pocket. The book went back to where it was.

“Would you accompany me to see Sybill? I am afraid she has been testing my patience lately. Keeps going on and on about an eminent danger.”

“Um,” she was not particularly fond of the Divination Professor, and the sentiment was probably returned.

“I’d be very grateful. And if it anything goes too terribly we can forget it ever happened with the Timeturner” she suggested. Hermione laughed and acquiesced to follow her. Minerva locked the Restricted Section behind them. Not many students were in, less than a handful, most were probably enjoying the warm Saturday afternoon. The new librarian Madame Olsen was reading a book by her desk. She was a historian from Scandinavia, had come with great recommendations. She waved at them on their way out.

The trip was made short as Minerva told her about the Godwin family, which produced many politicians as well as potion brewers and magizoologists. However, on her mother’s side, firstly the union between her mother Mary Wollstonecraft and her father Lord William Godwin was unexpected. The Wollstonecrafts had a lot of fortune tellers: a vague way of saying they opted to associate with muggles despite being purebloods.

“How do you know so much?” Hermione interrupted her.

“Ah. Well, you see, Lord Godwin remarried a woman named Clairmont. She was also a widower. Mary Jane and Lord Godwin had one son, but she had two daughters from her previous marriage. Jane and Wendy. Now, Jane and Wendy, her stepsisters, were educated at Hogwarts. Mary was not. Mary was magical but was only tutored by her father.” Hermione tried to keep up with the story.

“Was that usual back then? Was Hogwarts ever a boys-only school?” she asked.

“Heavens, no, that’s a muggle preconception. We allowed everyone and anyone. However, Hogwarts was just then in its infancy and not everyone sent their kids here, even though tuition is free. Some people did not trust the concept of having others raise their children at the time.” Minerva said.

“Oh”

“Anyways, Wendy Clairmont was a Hogwarts student and Hogwarts teacher. Mary ran off to live with a muggle. Her other stepsister lived with her for a while before coming back and marrying a Black. Wendy married into the Selwyns. Wendy was a very good friend of my mother for a very long time. I have heard her talk about her sisters and her family a long time ago.” Minerva finished her story.

“I think that was a lot of information. Mostly I registered that Mary Shelley is an unknown witch writer”

“Quite.” Minerva knocked on a portrait besides the access to the Divination Tower. A Sleepy Friar opened his eyes.

“May I come in, Sybill?” she asked the painting.

“Minerva! Oh, I’m not quite presentable, give me a moment.” Hermione was certain she heard a hiccup in the middle of the sentence.

“One minute. I have other duties to attend.” Minerva told her.

“Yes, yes” Suddenly a doorknob appeared besides the painting and Minerva reached for the knob. There was a tight spiral staircase leading up. Hermione followed. The room smelled just the same as she remembered from all those years ago. A mix of incense, sandalwood and sherry.

“Minerva!” she exclaimed. Then she turned to me. “Do I know you, dear?” she asked. I held back my desire to scoff at her. Though it is better that she does not remember me, rather than she remembered my theatrical exit back in my third year.

“Sybill, how are you?” She sniffed the sherry and asked about it. “Indulging, are we?”

“It’s terrible, Minerva! Absolutely terrible. I saw in the stars and then again in the tea leaves. A most horrible revenge. I saw a Death Eater rise to once again threaten wizardkind.”

“Now, now, Sybill, there are no more Death Eaters. The last ones accounted for were found more than five years ago, the rest are dead. We both to well there is no rising from the dead” she explained carefully. Hermione noticed fear in Sybill’s eyes, but was however persuaded by her inner voice that she was simply barmy.

“But my tea leaves…” Then Hermione remembered that Minerva also has little patience for the subject of Divination.

“You must desist, Sybill. Stop talking about Death Eaters, the time is past. And I will return your sherry tomorrow. Enough for today” she turned with a final goodbye. Hermione quickly went down the staircase before Minerva reached her.

“The last time I saw her so enebriated was with Dolores Umbridge in the castle.” Minerva shuddered. Hermione was passing a window and looked out towards the Forbidden Forest. She wondered about the centaurs for a second, but only a second.

* * *

She was laying on her abdomen, and calloused, strong hands lazily went up and down her back. She looked at him but he ignored looking back at him in favor of reaching her bum. His hand slowly and softly glided the smooth surface until it reached her leg, then it went back up again, a slow and extremely provocative trial to her scapula. He reached her neck and pushed her hair aside. Her curls fell to the other side exposing her neck to him. He lowered his face to her neck and his tongue darted out to lick a small part of her neck. He then nipped it. He then produced his tongue again and licked from her earlobe all the way to where her neck met her collarbone. Once, twice, it tickled, she laughed. He held her head with one hand and her shoulder with the other one. He did it one last time before his next stroke was between her shoulder blades. She shivered. He nipped a small bit of skin.

“Oh” she exhaled softly. He continued to lick along her spine until he reached the left dimple that is just to the side of her posterosuperior iliac spine. He licked the hollow and his hand pressed against the spine. He then moved to lick her gluteus maximus muscle. Her nerve endings responded strongly to the minimal touch of her skin. Both her hands lay beneath her head, trying to stay as still as possible for him. Both his hands were solely concentrated on her left butt cheek. One grabbed her from her outer side and the other rested three fingers trying to grab as much as possible while the other two fingers teased her intergluteal cleft, pulling her cheek hard. Then his hands softened as he licked her butt. She sagged a little in the bed as the pressure left her.

SLAP. His palm connected with the round surface, it felt hot and she quivered in response. His hand rubbed a little before repeating the action. SLAP. She whimpered this time, it was stronger than before.

“Ugh” she managed to express. He continued three more times. His left hand slapped from the side while his right hand held her by the hip on the other side.

He little by little was getting the intensity and tempo up, and after one particularly strong slap his hand left her hip. It quickly reached between her legs and settled on her quim. His finger did not need to enter her to see how wet she was. He slapped her one more time and then introduced one finger inside her. He left it there and spanked her one more time. He then introduced two fingers. Her pelvis involuntary went up in the air to allow him better access. He was sitting. His hands busy and he was very concentrated on what he was doing.

With her butt up in the air, he slapped her as hard as he could and then introduced a third and last finger before starting to stroke them in and out. Her cheek felt on fire. She was unsure if she would be able to handle a stronger slap than that. He brought his right hand to her lumbar spine, leaving her throbbing sex unattended.

But it was only for a second as his other hand quickly made its way to her pussy and three fingers entered her, his thumb came to rest on her clitoris. A guttural sound of pleasure rose in her throat and ended at her closed lips. His right hand came lower and a finger soaked in her juiced pressed against her arse. He had to press three times before he was able to enter her from behind. This time the deep sound from her throat was stronger and she opened her mouth, the noise encouraged his attentions even more.

With his left hand deep inside her pussy, he continued a slow rhythm that went in and out. He kept the rhythm as he penetrates her arse with a single finger, in and out slowly, not wanting to hurt her. She could not see what he was doing, but the way it felt was more than enough.

“Fuck,” he growled. He removed his left hand and cleaned it on his penus. He would need the lubrication later. He then removed the finger that had fucked her ass. She sighed from the loss. He pressed again with two fingers, barely penetrating. He readjusted to sitting on his knees and brought their pelvises together. She felt the ominous presence of his dick next to her sex: it felt warm. He paused at her slit and carefully dragged the head of the penus from her clitoris to her arse, coating it in her juices as much as he could. He then pressed against her arse: once, no response, twice, a gently tip, three times and he was in. Only a part of his length went inside. Then he stilled and waited for her to get comfortable before repeating. Little by little she managed to take in his whole length. Once all of it was inside of her, his free hand returned to her soaked twat. He finger fucked her at the same speed as his dick rode her arse. Slow and steady.

“Faster” she asked as soon as she felt his current rhythm manageable. He followed instructions quickly. She moaned. He felt encouraged by the moaning and fucked her how she wanted it. “I’m close” she informed him. She bucked her hips against him, and he held on carefully so to not be dismounted. She lowered her hips a little bit and he came down with her, it was a little uncomfortable so he pushed her forward on the bed and buried himself with her then. He removed his hand from her sex to grab on to both her hips as they thrusted together. She lifted her pelvis as much as their position allowed to meet his thrust greedily.

He felt her tense up around him. She was very near to her second orgasm of the night. She felt her body tense up and then shuddered strongly. She felt her legs weaken and his dick continued to ride her. She thrust upwards to meet him, a hungry clap between their bodies could be heard. She fell back down on the bed, completely spent. But he was not done. He thrusted a few more times. She felt her body tense up again. Since she was completely on her abdomen he did not need both his hands to steady her, one was enough, and he used his right hand to finger her sex once more as deep as he could and tried to rub her clit at the same time. He felt her tense up again.

“Viktor, I am coming” she exclaimed.

“Yes” he said roughly. He started losing his rhythm and bucked mercilessly against her butt. He pushed all the way in when he came. That was when she lost it one more time and coated his hand as she squirted on the bed and made a huge mess. He quickly exited her arse and laid on his back beside her. The only movement she was able to make was lift her hand to his chest. She rubbed her hand through his hair.

“Wow, love, that was…” and she trailed off. He was still breathing heavily, she could feel his heart hammering in his chest. Hers was too. Their tachycardia was synchronized.

She feel asleep with a hand across his chest. Later, when she wakes up before him, they would be curled up together.

* * *

She disentangled herself. She slowly moved to the side of the bed carefully not to wake him up. She sat on the edge of the bed and stretched her back and arms. She had her hands extended towards the sky, her fingers knitted together and her chest popping forward. She took a deep breath.

“Tease” she heard from behind her. They had both fallen asleep naked. He was probably watching her back arch. She twisted to look at him. She smiled at him. “Come here” he beckoned her. She went to his side and snuggled next to him. His arms came around her automatically. He placed a kiss to her forehead. She tucked her head beneath his neck and breathed in. His heart was calm now.

“I have to get to work.” She told his left nipple.

“I know” he replied. He went in to work much later than she did.

“I’ll just take a quick shower” she told him and once more disentangled from him. He gazed at her butt from where he was still laying on the bed. She left the door open in invitation. 

Viktor currently resided in Netherlands. He played for the Utrecht Ouruboros. He had a house large enough for him and Hermione. She came often, yes, that delicious pun was intended. For a while she had been working full time in Geneva, a goblin liaison for Gringotts and Grotte D’Argent. She had quickly studied Gobledook after graduating Hogwarts and started working with Bill in Gringotts for some sort of reparations, he was unsure what the story was.

While she was in Geneva he had signed a year contract with the Graphorns, a local team that played in the major European League. They made an attractive offer. And he had been spending a lot of time there during his off season. His contract with the Vultures had finally ended and he wanted to be close to her. She put up a fuss about finally having her own place that he ended up finding the shabbiest flat to allow her the fantasy that he was not living with her.

She was flourishing in Geneva, the Goblins respected her, she was constantly being given more to do. From 2005 to 2009 she worked in Geneva and Viktor played with the Gray Graphorns. In 2009 she was relocated back to England. She looked for her own place, with Harry over her shoulder insisting that Grimmauld Place was big enough for all of them. Viktor has been personally invited by Harry to live there too. Ron snubbed his nose against both.

Somehow, the ex-boyfriend managed to put himself between the two of them. They clearly worked great together, Viktor and Hermione. But Ron made it his mission to ruin that.

Ron would try with all his might to make Hermione exasperated at Viktor, and with Viktor he tried to make him jealous that they were still friends. And worse, Ron’s arm candy usually worked for the press. It clear none of them were interested in him but rather his famous house mates. It was painfully obvious to the rest of them. Things that they said around the house made it to the press. Items got lost. And despite Harry warning Ron, Hermione vouched for him: "He is trying to find someone, you have Ginny, I have Viktor. He has a right to find someone"

One time a picture of Viktor in his underpants leaked to the Daily Prophet and Euro Wizard. Hermione defending Ron was the last straw, “He has to see me be with you, and how happy you make me, he has always been jealous” That was when he moved out and asked Hermione to come with him. He would continue to travel to finish the season with the Graphorns, and since his contract was renewed per year, would tender his resignation and find something closer afterwards. He did not want to break up with her, he wanted them to leave the toxic environment that was Grimmauld Place. 

She said no. 

So they split, mostly amicably in 2010. She said she loved him but that did not mean she should have to sacrifice her responsibility towards Harry and Ron.

“I can’t stand the way he looks at us, even if he is like family to you” he had said.

They both cried but decided it was for the best.

From then on they met each other secretly. Always under a veil of lie for the benefit of her housemates. He suggested her leaving and they would fight again, not see each other for a month, and then make up. Honestly, Viktor liked the make up sex.

After snoozing in bed while Hermione showered, once he heard her turn off the faucet he reached the closest object: a post it note that seemed to be more hers than his. Without reading it he turned it into a portkey to the British Ministry of Magic.

She came out of the shower with fresh clothes and her hair pulled back.

“I made your portkey, love” he raised his hand towards her. She stepped into her heels and came closer to the bed for it. She sat on his side.

“Thank you for the lovely weekend, Viktor.” She kissed him softly on the lips. She took the paper. “And thanks for the portkey, too” she said.

“What’s the word?” she asked.

“You should know by now.” She rolled her eyes and looked at the paper. It was an old post it note that she had left a few weeks ago saying that he needed to buy tomato, basil and parmesan. It was for a Pasta a la Checca she had done. She stood beside him.

“I’ll be back home soon” she replied. When the word home left her lips she felt the incoming apparition and appeared in the Ministry Atrium.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just thought maybe I should let you know I don't have a beta so mistakes are my own. I will reread sometime this week to see if I spot any errors.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	4. The Greastest Masquerade Artist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To stand on the moment of two eternities, the past and the future, which is precisely the present moment - Thoreau

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Warning: Character death

**Chapter 4 – The greatest Masquerade Artist**

Hermione and Viktor were walking hand in hand around muggle Netherlands. It felt quite, sorry, magical. Here they could pretend the world beyond the two of them did not exist. Viktor held her hand as they walked between the blossoms. April is the best time of the year to see them. Utrecht is one of the cities that exported the most tulips around the world.

Curiously, the scent of tulips was very subtle. Hermione loved it.

“Hermione” Viktor interrupted her taking in the scenery. Utrecht also has a lot of canals and bridges.

“Yes?” she asked. Viktor pulled her close and kissed her for a moment.

“I wish today would not end” he replied.

“Reality will always knock us down, love” she sighed. After spending a lot of time with banks, her current position in the Ministry was much more laid back. Maybe her income was a bit less, but she was unconcerned about it now. Expenses had been quite stable for a while.

“Da. I know” he replied. He hated that he could not have her all to himself. “Come and live with me” he suggested, he had no idea how many times he had said those words in the past three years.

She only sighed. She reached for his chin and kissed him. “Come, walk with me” she ignored the question.

The tulips ranged from nearly black purple flowers to bright yellow. A range of pink, magenta and orange also stood proud. Viktor knew her passion for flowers. She often tried but failed miserably to keep plants indoors. He thought it was probably part of the atmosphere at Grimmauld that soaked up the sun and moisture the plant needed. If she planted her flowers here, they would be sure to blossom.

He sighed and held her hand tightly in his. Life was unfair.

* * *

Ginevra Molly Weasley was remarkably close to having a fit. Hermione watched her impending outburst. Ginny first smiled falsely and then proceeded to outline all the consequence of her dress not being ready in time to the witch that despite being taller than Ginny by a few inches started folding into herself.

Hermione decide it was time to interrupt.

“Ginny.” Her face was reaching a color almost like her hair. Hermione placed a soothing hand on her shoulder. “Ginny.” She repeated once more for emphasis. “We should come back tomorrow, and everything will be sorted by then” Hermione said.

Ginny made the most unladylike noise from her throat.

“Easy for you to say, you already have your dress at home” Well, she also did not need a two thousand galleon dress by a designer. But she guessed it was part of the whole as long as money can buy it.

“Sorry. I just think that Mildred here is not at fault. You know the saying: don’t kill the messenger” Hermione calmed her. Ginny glared under her nose one last time at the witch. “You’d be looking for a new job if my friend, the diplomat,” she actually hissed a little at that phrase, “wasn’t here”

“Ginny, play nice” Hermione insisted. Hermione started pulling her from the shop and softly mouthed to the clerk _I’m sorry_.

“Now for part that I will enjoy. Getting my hair done” Hermione said. Today she would add some highlights and get a haircut. Nobody could say they did not put in the effort for the Commemoration of the Battle of Hogwarts, or, Annual Gala as most referred to it.

The Simmering Stonestreet was a commercial section that reminded Hermione of Calle Serrano in Madrid. The sidewalks were amazingly wide, easily seven people could walk side to side to one another. Many boutiques, designer stores and restaurants littered the street for about ten blocks. It had been an addition to Diagon Alley that connected to Victoria Street.

Ginny had a personalized dress by the designer Aphrodyte, probably one of the best around. Hermione had opted for an off the rack model from a lesser know small boutique, less pricey, too.

“Mother has been going on and on about how we have to get married. I do not want to. I mean, Harry and I already live together, we don’t depend on anyone. Hell, everyone knows us.” They had been together for a while now. Officially, it was probably three years, it took her quite a while to ensnare Harry, as she worded it.

“I think it’s just old-fashioned thinking, and it is really up to you to if you want to or not. Even if you are going to do it just to please her. Consider it a possibility” Hermione answered. She also was very much anti marriage. If its about showing the world something, she preferred her privacy.

“Harry wants to” she sighed. She twirled the engagement ring around her finger that she had had for almost two years now. “But I don’t. I just feel all this pressure. I thought that being pregnant was supposed to be a happy time” she replied.

“It is,” Hermione lied through her teeth. Another thing she would never have are children: simply because the world is already too full of people to bring one more person into hardship. “You should be happy. Bugger Molly” Hermione said. Ever since Ron and Hermione broke up less than a year after the war it had been so much easier to disagree with the woman. She thought a woman was meant to reproduce and stay at home. Very much not what Hermione was raised to believe, besides, her mother worked equally with her father in their joint practice.

“Well, it is not that simple” Ginny argued.

“Ginny, maybe you don’t need to get married. You know I am the first to understand that. But I also really think that it would make Harry as well as Molly happy. Besides, you love parties. This party would be all about you”

“I’ll think about it” Ginny accepted, but Hermione certain that Ginny was already changing her opinion. She would to anything to please Harry. “Don’t look so smug, Hermione Granger, I said I would think about it” Hermione nodded once.

“Who are you bringing to the gala?” Ginny asked. Hermione shrugged. Viktor would be there, off course, he had bought a ticket about a month ago. They would probably have a tentative hello in front of the public and later head back to his place to shag themselves silly. Hermione did not have to pay, being considered for some reason a war hero, concept too strange to understand even more than a decade after the fact. But it was Harry that had to make a speech, not her.

“I guess I am mostly going stag” Hermione admitted. She had no idea, if ever, Harry and Ginny speculated about her love life. It was crystal clear what Ron thought about her love life: does not exist and should not exist. So, she was more than happy to deceive them if it meant everybody getting along.

“Hm” Ginny said. “Are you interested in knowing some of my friends that I know are going stag too?” she offered. Hermione bluffed and played it cool.

“So long as you stop trying to pair me with somebody from the Quidditch League. You know I don’t know how to talk Quidditch” she smiled. It was true. She had learned the basics, for a very long time would cheer for Viktor and had learned a lot while with him. But still talking about Quidditch was not what they did most of the time. It was probably the least they ever talked about.

“Well, there’s Smith. He recently came back to England after becoming a Potions Master in Latvia. Oh, I think you would get along beautifully with Stan aux Villes, he recently transferred from Belgium and works with Harry. He’s a detective. And he knows French”

“La langue n’est nécessaire pas pour parler quelques minutes" Hermione challenged Ginny. She had no clue of French. So. “He probably knows enough English to talk a few minutes” Hermione said. “Would you like me to say it in gobledook?” Ginny laughed.

They arrived shortly at Madame Quiescent & Madame Waft. Whether you want your hair to move with or without the wind or for it to lay perfectly still, this was the place. Hermione’s hair had never been the same after she came here for the first time.

“Hermione!” Odette called to her as soon as the door tinkled announcing her presence. “Ginny!” she exclaimed looking at them both. “It is wonderful to see you!” Hermione smiled. She did not trust anybody else with her hair. Odette taught her how to tame it for day to day and every six months without a fault there was a long session of hair products, treatments, dye, keratin and many others to make her hair beautiful. Today was going to be a long day at the salon. It was usually in late April and late October when she would come for the longer sessions.

“It’s that time of the year again,” Hermione pretended to sigh melodramatically. The time of the year she would finish a book in the five hours it took to get her hair done. The book for today was called The Casual Vacancy. It had been on her bookshelf for a little over a year now.

Odette guided her to a swiveling chair and asked her to sit. “Coffee? Tea?” she offered. Hermione accepted some tea with a little lemon. Odette sent somebody else to fetch the drink. “What would you like? Darker? Lighter? More curls? Or straight for the gala?” She looked at her hair.

“You definitely need the color.”

“I would go a bit lighter, no problem” Hermione said.

“Maybe two-colored high lights, very subtle.” Odette thought out loud and then started using her wand for the products she needed to zoom from the back all the way to them. Ginny had sad beside Hermione. While Hermione got assessed first, Ginny was sexting with her future husband.

* * *

“You’ll do fine” Hermione tried to calm his nerves. They had already gone over the speech she had written for him yesterday, changed a few things and ended with **Let’s not forget those we lost** instead of her original closing of **We will never face such darkness again**.

“Never say never” Harry, Head of the DMLE and Savior of the Wizarding World, said with disappointment. “All Death Eaters are caught, yes, but before Voldemort there was Grindelwald and before Grindelwald there was Hadehoor.” Hadehoor had been around three centuries ago, and ironically, the practitioner of the wickedest magics and rituals called himself Lord of Light.

“You’re right, history repeats itself, and those who do not know their history are damned to repeat it” They struck out the line. It was Harry who came up with the closing. Hermione loved it and praised it.

“See, you can write,” she emphasized. “Maybe next you for the fifteenth you do this yourself.” Hermione nudged him. He gave her an are-you-crazy look.

Harry was dressed in a black tux with a suede formal robe over it. It was cinched with a Hogwarts crest just above his sternum. Standing besides him was Ginny, she looked happy. Hermione had not been officially told anything by anyone, but she had a good guess that there was going to be a wedding before the baby was born. Probably sooner rather than later since she would not want to get married with a huge belly. Ginny was wearing a mother of pearl dress with tiny beads that reflected with every movement, it had one sleeve ending in a princess hem at her wrist and her other arm bare. The asymmetry favored Ginny. It looked stunning. She also had pearls decorating her earlobes, throat, and left wrist. A second golden thread on her neck had a pendant that rested above her breasts of the Hogwarts crest. Hermione’s crest was pinned on the top of her dress.

“Say, it’s almost time, isn’t it?” Asked Ron as he made his way towards the trio close to the podium.

“Yes, we are just here dealing with some butterflies in Harry’ stomach” Ginny informed her brother.

“Where’s Lavender?” Harry asked.

“She’s getting us drinks. Hey, Hermione, I saw that your ex is here” she nodded in recognition. She knew he was here. They had said they would meet back at his place at one. Once all of this was over.

“Oh. Crap. I was going to introduce you to Stan. I really think the two of you could hit it off” Ginny said. Hermione laughed.

“You can still introduce me to Stan. Viktor being here does not change that” Hermione said. An introduction is nothing really and lying to them became easier with each passing day.

“Ready??” Shacklebolt materialized close to them, he was wearing his signature purple robes. Anita smiled and greeted all of them.

“No” Harry said with a definitive pout.

“Chin up, Harry. It’ll be over in a flash” Shacklebolt said enthusiastically. “Oh, and Ginny, I hear congratulations are in order” he glanced to her currently flat belly.

“Thanks, Minister” she replied.

“Okay, then, so. Quincy will introduce me and after I talk, he will introduce you. No more than ten minutes, right? The less we talk the faster these people can eat and enjoy the party.” Harry ruffled his hair. Ginny reached and tried to set it back straight again.

“Hermione, sure glad we are not needed up there, right?” Ron said. He had the gall to place a hand around her hip. She tensed but let the hand remain there. She glanced at Ginny to save her.

“Come, let’s go find a table to seat at” Ginny asked for Hermione’s hand. “Join us, Anita?” she asked. Anita quickly caught on and followed.

“So unnecessary” Hermione exhaled once they were out of earshot.

“Hermione, someday you’re just going to have to live with the fact that my brother is still in love with you. Yes, he loves Lavender and they somehow work. Do not ask me how, though. But he still somehow pines after you. And considering what you are currently wearing I am surprised he was not drooling all over you.” Ginny did a second head to toe on Hermione just to make her point. Fine. She had a litmus dress that was dark green and dark purple around her shoulders and breast and was a shiny metallic purple, violet and orange nearing her ankles. It cinched at her waist and then flared to the floor. Grey, beaded peep-toe stilettos poked from the hem of her dress. A small metallic grey clutch paired with the shoes. As they sat down, she took a chance to check her phone.

_Damn. Warn a guy next time. You are looking fine, and I have not seen you up close yet. You look beautiful, love._ There was also another message from Ginny saying that they were waiting for her from a few minutes before she had arrived from the hairdresser.

“I’m just now seeing your text” she informed Ginny. She was also checking her phone.

Just then Quincy called for everyone to settle down.

* * *

“Let’s not forget those we lost” Harry finished, and everyone started clapping, some even rose from their seats. Hermione, Anita, and Ginny followed suit. Soon Kingsley did as well, he had joined them after his speech. Ron, thankfully, had sat at another table with Lavender, Parvati, and Astoria. Astoria had come hand in hand with someone Hermione did not know. However, she could appreciate how handsome he was.

Soon everyone was mingling, getting drinks, and seeking friends they had not seen in a while.

“Hermione, lovely to see you,” Astoria at some point came close to where she was standing waiting to get a drink. She smiled.

“Lovely to see you too, Astoria. How is Daphne these days?” she asked politely.

“Oh, my sister was unable to come this year. She is very pregnant at the moment. Number three on the way already.” She admitted. “Hopefully soon we will all have kids” Hermione held in her shudder. Why does society demand for people to reproduce? “Oh, wait, you would need a man in your life for that to happen, right?” she said pettily. Hermione ignored the comment.

“Oh, I don’t know, Astoria, I find that being a single mom can also be very satisfactory, and all you need for that is one good and careless shag.” She answered. At least Astoria’s date found that entertaining.

“I’m sorry, we have not been introduced,” she turned to him. “Hermione Granger, and you are?”

“No problem” the man said with a thick Spanish accent, did she even detect a bit of Caribbean? “Alonso Raro” he introduced himself. “Here to make Ms. Greengrass’ evening one to remember” he said, referring to her hand tucked at his elbow.

“Rightly so” Hermione acquiesced. He looked at her intensely. Something about him seemed to remind Hermione of someone. It intrigued her.

“I’ll take a gin tonic with citrus,” Astoria informed her arm candy as took two steps closer to the bar.

“Two citric gin tonics.” He asked the bartender. “And you, Ms. Granger?” he asked.

“Whisky on the rocks” she addressed the bartender directly.

“Coming right up” he said to all of them. First, he got the whisky.

“Thank you,” she smiled deeply at the bartender. She then turned to the couple, “Have a good evening both of you.” Then left with her drink in her hand. She would want for some of that ice to melt before starting on her drink.

From where she was standing, she saw a handsome black man had taken her seat. He was wearing an off-white crème white suit that clashed terribly besides Ginny, but he was animatedly talking with Harry. That must be the detective Ginny wanted to introduce to her. He was attractive, she would give Ginny that much. But her housemates, well, maybe Harry not so much, wanted to think that Viktor did not exist. They did not understand the goodness between them probably because they never wanted to see it. To be honest, they were together, every other weekend she was in “Geneva” or “Australia” it was always with Viktor. If somebody ever got a hold of their text message history. She just veiled the truth from them because they were unsupportive.

She was headed back to her table when a hand pulled her into a secluded nook with a characteristic grip that she knew very well. Said daring hand curled on top her butt. Its partner reached the side of her face. A nose planted itself on the crook of her neck. Her body responded quickly and curled towards him, her butt seeking out his groin behind her. Her hands went to his hips. He turned her around with practiced ease. He smiled and stared deeply into her eyes. She returned the favor. He slowly looked down her body and afterwards raked his eyes, if it was possible, even slower all the way back up to her face. Just that made her blush and squirm her legs between each other. Finally, he finished his observation and tilted his head back to see the heat on her face. He smiled.

“Like what you s–

He captured her lips in a passionate kiss. It had been too long. Five days too long since her last visit in Utrecht. He was starving.

“Want to rip that dress off” he whispered in her earlobe. She giggled and moaned simultaneously.

“You’re looking pretty good yourself, love” she replied. Her hand reached his butt as well. It was perfectly contoured and muscly. She absolutely loved that ass. “What time is our date tonight? I’m thinking we could leave just now.” Hermione suggested. He let out sound that for her was like a whispered roar, something manly and possessive.

“Babe,” Viktor succumbed. They continued kissing for all they were worth. For several years they came to the event in public light. They were the stable couple. Ron they could always count on to produce a different eye candy every year. It wasn’t until 2008 that Harry and Ginny finally came together after a tag game for a very long time. Ginny once came with Anthony Goldstein. Also once came with Blaise Zabini of all people. Probably to make Harry jealous.

“Honey” she whispered back. She felt a hand reach her hair. She pulled away. “Do not mess with the hair.” She said icily. Not only had that taken a lot of time and galleons, if he started getting his hands on her hair she would not be able to go back out again. Though, maybe that would not be a bad thing.

“You like it when I pull your hair” he leaned forward again and whispered in her ear. She trembled in response. She was certain she had ruined her panties.

“I do” was her automatic response.

“Hermione” he stopped what he was doing, and held her at arms length, and looked deeply into her eyes.

“Viktor” she replied mischievously.

“I want to ask you a different question” he said.

“What could it be?”

“Hermione,” she felt one of his hands leave her back and caress her cheek. She closed her eyes to savor the feeling. His hand was gone quickly.

“Would you marry me?” The world stopped. She felt her heart had jumped ship out of her chest and left the building. Her pulse throbbed around her ears and head and, and she could not breath. She could not hear anything. Had this idea already been somehow going inside her head while Ginny ranted about her current predicament? No matter what, she knows deep inside that Viktor loved her and she loved him. She knows how much he wants her and a family, but above all her. Could she give him both things? Her mind went a mile a second. And, yet, there was no doubt in her head. He had never asked this before.

She didn’t have the words; it was impossible to talk with her lungs not working. But she nodded her head.

“Are you saying yes?” Viktor whispered. His eyes shone like Christmas had come early.

Trembling, she leaned into him, first kissing him and then hugging him. He held her back, his hug had a newfound intensity.

“(Fuck), I’m sorry, I was going to wait until later” he swore in Bulgarian. “This was very planned, not sporadic. I thought today might be the day. Well, I also thought last New Year and last Valentines, and your last birthday too, but didn’t seem the right moment.”

Finally, she took a deep breath in.

“You’ve been thinking on this for over a year?” she asked, it came out as nothing much more than a whisper.

“Da” he smiled. “The ring is at home” he kissed her again.

“I’m getting a ring?” she squealed. She jumped into his arms. He caught her faster than a snitch.

“You’re actually getting two rings. You should know that” he whispered.

“I’m getting two rings” she whispered back. They held each other for a few more seconds.

“Babe,” Viktor interrupted her thoughts. He whispered even more than before. “Isn’t it too quiet?” he asked. She tried to listen, but effectively all the voices and mingling were gone. There was no clic clac of heels, no tinkle of champagne glasses, not a sound. Was it possible time had really stopped when she felt it stop?

That was ridiculous.

Her gut, however, screamed a different sensation at her. Their little secluded spot, their bubble popped. Something was happening. Viktor had probably cast a notice me not and a silencing charm around them before. She waved her hand and cast a finite. Nothing. The silence was tense, and Hermione’s senses went into alarm mode.

“Something’s wrong” she whispered, her voice hoarse and at the same time frail. She felt frightened. The fear that had originated in her gut had successfully transmitted to her brain. Flight or fight response, her brain said. A primal sense of fear surrounded her. She froze for a moment, stopped her breathing for a second to see if she could hear better. Nothing. She then reached for her wand that was in a holster by her lower leg. Viktor was quicker than her in getting his wand in his grip. It must have been up his sleeve.

Suddenly, another voice spoke. It was a naturally cruel and violent voice.

“Thank you so, so much for your attention! You’re a very silent crowd, but I will take it” the person talking laughed to himself. That laugh was not funny; it made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Hermione was reminded of a Batman villain.

They disillusioned themselves wordlessly and then peered softly from the tapestry that was hiding them.

“Now. I recognize over there the bitch that killed my brother.” A flash of green bounded towards the other direction that they were hiding in. She saw a brunette topple to the ground, most from the impact. She was facing the other way. Hermione was unable to not recognize her.

After the light, they noticed every single person in attendance seemed to be under a Petrificus Totalus spell. It looked like a wax museum, everyone still, an imitation of an expression on most faces. From their vantage point, some were unseeing and others had a slight movement of their eyes. The closest person Hermione saw was George Weasley, his eyes were seeing, there had been a gentle movement of the eye towards the collapsing woman, and then Hermione saw how they started to moisten. It was eerie. Viktor held her in place. She was still unsure who was addressing them. Nor what had happened. Nor how many more there were asides from the man that was addressing them. He was walking between the tables, his congregation unmoving.

“It’s a curse.” Viktor whispered in her ear. Hermione looked at their untouched glasses. They had been floating besides them all the while. “They look petrified”

“Everyone, yes, but how?” she questioned.

“Da. I don’t know” he replied.

“Are there more of them?” she asked.

“Who am I? I do not think most of you would recognize me. Not even the turncoats I see present here today. The ones that gave up the cause once my lord was killed.” He boomed towards his frozen audience. No one answered. So, he was a former Death Eater.

“Oh no, I think someone ought to know me. It took me a while to come back to haunt all of you to. To take my revenge. But, I, the greatest masquerade artist, have been in disguise for quite a while. They say we must honor the dead by remembering them.” he said. He seemed to enjoy talking to himself, or thought people could hear him.

He turned towards a man with blonde nearly white perfectly pressed hair. “You have no idea how long it took me to create this potion, Lucius, you see, you are paralyzed, yes, but” he must have said a curse inside his head because the next thing they saw was Lucius Malfoy rising from a table to the left of them, like a marionette, his movements barely coordinated, slow and halting every few seconds. There was no fluidity of movement. He moved first a leg, then an arm, then another leg. He was being controlled by force. “If you are Imperio’d you will move. Ingenious, huh?”

“Now, Lucius, would you please be kind enough to say my name?” the man acidly turned to Lucius. Hermione watched the puppet walk across the room, with no expression on his face. His lips had yet to move. His eyes were not moving, unlike George’s eyes that she had seen move and had seen react, Lucius’s eyes seemed empty. Lifeless. He started to open his mouth, but no words came out. “Oh. You’re a tough one, aren’t you?” the man laughed as Lucius did not vocalize. He was probably trying to fight of the Imperius Curse coursing through him.

“Fine” the man snarled. The man, wand held in his left hand, had a tight grip despite there being no one able to fight him. Hermione and Viktor saw as the man walked closer to Lucius, and carefully aimed his wand at his abdomen. “Sectumsempra” he all but yelled. Lucius started bleeding. Because of the curious effects of the potion, his blood and guts spilled but he did not even hunch over. The man lost attention and turned to focus on someone else.

“Who else?” he snarled at all of them. Hermione got a clear view of his face just then. She thought she knew who it was.

“That’s one of the Lestrange brothers” she whispered to Viktor. “I’m certain, but I do not know which one. They had supposedly died at the battle of Hogwarts”

“Now, I just need the bitch that killed my wife.” He said to the room at large. He glanced around looking for someone.

“Molly’s not here” Hermione barely whispered to Viktor, Molly had stayed home with Victoire, Dominique and George’s twins. The man suddenly rounded at Ron.

“Ronald Weasley. Another War Hero.” The man was in Ron’s face. Hermione could only see his face. Ron was facing the other way.

“Viktor, we have to do something” she asked of him. They had been grasping at each other. Viktor disillusioned himself and Hermione followed.

“I suppose you want a full frontal attack?” he whispered. They had no plan. She shook her head.

“I think we have to distract him and then bind him” she said. “And we need help”

“Stay behind me.” He said to her. Hermione took a step behind him as they carefully entered the room.

Hermione then thought that the best way to distract him was by sending a message. She would cast a Patronus to go to the Ministry: Hostage situation at the gala. Death Eater.

“Viktor, I’m going to send forth a Patronus” she said.

“Da” he accepted. Her silver otter in a flash of light bounded towards the closest window. Lestrange saw the tail end of the charm, he turned towards the window and cast towards it from where the apparition left. “Bombarda” he spoke loud enough to he heard. The window shattered and several pieces of glass flew in all directions, some stabbing the nearest persons. None of them even jerked away from the glass. If they had not been siting, Hermione would have said they were dead. Many were thrown off their chairs and fell to the floor from the impact, still unmoving. Hermione and Viktor were far enough to be spared by the impacting glass.

“Oh, so someone is playing around. Show yourself.” He asked. Viktor and Hermione stayed perfectly still. They were behind a table. The hand that was not gripping his wand had taken Hermione’s elbow, a soft touch asking her to stay still.

The man walked between tables. He stopped besides the Minister’s table, where she was supposed to be. “Harry Potter!” he said. “Can’t say much, can you?” Harry’s fierce eyes looked straight at the man. He had already killed two people as far as Hermione could tell.

“Do you have any idea what it feels like to lose your wife?” he asked rhetorically to Harry. He aimed his wand at Harry and a green flash appeared again.

But Hermione did not have the correct angle. He was not aiming at him; he had aimed at Ginny. Blood started to come out of her abdomen. It was probably Sectumsempra again. That horrid curse.

She saw the blood on Ginny’s abdomen and could not help herself. She tried to go closer to where Ginny was, Lestrange had kept walking towards the broken window.

“Show yourself!” he cast widely.

Hermione felt as the disillusionment charm failed her. He was going to see her any moment now. He was turning slowly. He was so sure he was completely in control.

She did not know if Viktor’s charm failed as well. She tried to think on her feet.

“I already called for help” she made him focus on her. She was ready to deflect any curse thrown at her. Two spells rebounded against her shield consecutively, but it held its ground. Viktor also seized his chance and bound and petrified the bastard. He had, effectively, looked at her and the distraction gave Viktor the few seconds to act.

Lestrange fell down on the floor with a clunk.

During the next twenty seconds about two dozen Aurors apparated inside the hall room.

“What is this?” a blonde Auror asked Hermione.

“What happened?” someone else said. Asides from all the attendants being petrified in their seats, there were about a dozen bodies bleeding and standing completely still. A few had collapsed on the floor near the exploded window. Maybe more were dead.

“Lestrange” Hermione was still aiming her want at him. “He said he poisoned the drinks.”

“But what happened to everyone? They, they look petrified” To further his theory, one person grabbed the nearest person from an elbow. The person did not move. Viktor also came closer to Lestrange without letting his wand deviate from the man.

“Rodolphus Lestrange” Hermione confirmed when she saw him up close.

“Get some Healers in here” an Auror commanded to somebody else. Viktor and Hermione were relayed by some Aurors.

“And how come you two weren’t affected?”

“We had not had anything to drink. He said he had poisoned the drinks.” Viktor informed. Hermione then looked around and noticed there were not bartenders nor waiters present. Had they been in on it? Had they been under an Imperius Curse?

“Where’s the staff?” she vocalized to the Aurors. They too noticed that it was only the guests present. Hermione and Viktor had once more found the comfort of each other’s arms.

Two new wizards in Healer robes materialized alongside the Auror that was sent to fetch them.

He also looked around in awe.

“We don’t know. They said he mentioned poisoning the drinks.” An Auror turned his head towards them.

“He worked alone?” the returning Auror asked.

“We don’t know. The staff is missing” he added.

Hermione noticed there were much more than two people dead. She saw Lucius Malfoy on the floor, all bled out. She headed to where Ginny was, scared to look at her but still needing to confirm. Ginny was wide eyed and her previously pearly dress now had blood starting on her chest and forming a puddle in her lap. It overflowed to the floor, a continouous dripping sound between her legs and floor could be heard like a metronome. She was gone. She looked like a dead doll. Beautiful and bloody.

Hermione felt the tears before she realized she was crying. Viktor suddenly placed a hand on her shoulder. Harry besides then laid stock still, but she saw tears at his cheeks. He was crying as well.

“Harry, I am so sorry, I should have done something before” she apologized. She hugged Harry instead of Ginny. He felt stiff. Usually, he would return her embraces. This was like hugging something after having taxidermy done. His hair was there, his glasses were still one, but he was empty. She could not even feel him breath.

One of the Healers had identified the Minister and was running diagnostic charms.

“This is very dark Magic. But,” he spoke to the Auror. Hermione and Viktor were within earshot, just on the other side of the table. “It’s progressive. His muscles are failing him. In three minutes he is going to asphyxiate from lack of oxygen. I’d dare say many of the people here have already asphyxiated.” He looked around. Hermione carefully grabbed Harry’s glasses and place them under his nose. He was not breathing.

She looked towards the Auror that seemed to be in charge, standing beside the Auror. Harry was his boss. Harry was dead.

“Christ, this is a massacre. They are all dead, then” the Auror swore.

“What?” Hermione asked, suddenly her voice sounded very loud.

“The paralysis is complete. After a certain time, if there is no way for air to come in and out… they die” the Auror said. “I will call for back up and check everyone. But I’m certain they are dead.”

Was Lucius already dead when Lestrange used his body as a marionette? Was Ginny? Or did they feel pain as they bleed out?

It did not matter how many people he had shot the killing curse or Sectumsempra. He came to kill everybody and he achieved his goal.

Hermione let out a sob. Viktor reached out to her again, she fell on his chest and started crying for all she was worth. She felt a drop reach her forehead and noticed that Viktor was crying too.

All their friends were dead.

* * *

After a long while with the Aurors and Healers they finally left to go home. They apparated to Viktor’s doorstep. They did not say a word to each other. Softly, Viktor helped her out of her dress. They both found a pair of pyjamas even though they usually preferred to sleep naked. Once in bed they curled against each other again. Hermione’s eyes were still red, but her body did not have any more water to spare on tears.

“Viktor” she said softly. “I..” but she was unable to find the words.

“Shh. Rest, love. Tomorrow we’ll see what happens” he told her.

“How many people died today? Fifty? A hundred? More?” she hesitated. The only thing that saved them is that they are always sneaking around when in public.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it” he replied in Bulgarian. It took Hermione a moment to translate in her head. Then she nodded.

“Not thinking sounds about right” she replied. She then reached over and kissed him. They continued to lose themselves into the kiss until their minds were blank. They were unaware of how much time passed until they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.


	5. The Hesitant Time Traveler

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Countless choices define our fate: each choice, each moment, a moment a ripple in the river of time. Enough ripples, and you change the tide...  
> For the future is never truly set.
> 
> \- Charles Xavier, Days of Future Past movie

Viktor woke up before Hermione. She was wrapped in his arms. He carefully withdrew from their embrace. He removed a stray strand of hair that was on her face. She scrunched her nose but did not wake yet. He kissed her lips and she moved a little more.

After a second one she lazily opened her eyes.

“Good morning, love” he said to her. She tried a smile but failed. He was not smiling either. He was holding on tightly to her.

“Is today the Annual Gala?” she asked, hoping what happened yesterday was just a nightmare. Viktor looked at her apprehensively. They had had a roller coaster of emotions the day before.

“No, love” he sighed. “I also wish yesterday was just a bad dream” She leaned into his arms once more. The physical contact seemed to help them, having each other as something tangent, something to hold on to.

“We should go to the Ministry today” she hesitated to suggest. Viktor shook his head.

“It’s Sunday. I think we can wait until Monday.” He told her. They were talking directly to each other’s ear, very little was needed, and for some reason speaking even a centimeter farther away seemed unbearable.

“I need to get up” Viktor told her. Their arms disentangled. He hesitantly rose from the bed. Hermione looked up at the ceiling, not wanting to think. Her hand reached for her metronome, her broken Time turner.

“Shite” she said to herself. She also had the working Time Turner that Minerva and she had found. It was in her jewelry box. She jumped from the bed and walked over to the vanity. She cast a quick Alohomora. She had removed the useless trinket last night and left it at Grimmauld Place. But the one she had rescued from Hogwarts she had left here, something about the Dark magic of Grimmauld had made her distrustful. She grabbed it along with the long gold chain. “I know what I need to do.” She spoke to herself.

The book had said the Timeturners usually needed a setting. She had been doing a turn for an hour. But if she switched from the first ring to the second ring, it would be days, and the third ring would be years. She was awed of the disturbing opportunity that she had in her hands. Should she take it?

Viktor came back from the bathroom and was surprised to see her up from the bed. He rummaged through his nightstand drawer and brought over a little box to Hermione. He was about to ask for her hand when he saw her expression.

“Your necklace?” he asked.

“It’s a Time turner” she said. He just looked at her puzzled. “It can go back in time”

“What?” he rubbed his eye, he was still half asleep. Hermione was exhilarated. Her mind was already running at the speed of light.

“Wait, is that my ring?” she exclaimed. He opened the box and placed it on her finger. There was a white diamond and an amethyst side by side. It was beautiful. Around them, a gold infinity loop. On the inside there was a simple inscription: H+V. She kissed him return. He kissed her back then asked about her necklace again.

“This is not my necklace, well, it’s the same. But my necklace is an old, broken one of these. This one works. I found it a few weeks ago with Minerva. I told her I was going to return it to Master Newton. I had not gotten round to it. I left if here” she told him.

“Wait, did you say go back in time?” he asked her.

“Yes, honey. We can undo what happened yesterday.” Once again, she felt her heartbeat in her throat.

“Really?” Viktor told her. “But meddling with time…” Viktor started.

“I’ve done this before.” She told him. His eyebrow rose in question.

“Third year. I was not supposed to tell anyone ever, but I was given this thing originally to be able to take all the electives, apparently the Ministry allowed it…” she trailed off. She still held the thing in her arm. “All I have to do is go back a few hours, once the time is up, the me that is here will disappear. I have to warn Harry or Shacklebolt.”

“Is this safe?” he asked. She nodded.

“I will only go back a few hours” she told him. “I know how to be safe with this.”

“I’m coming with you” he said in his non-negotiable tone. “Show me” he said again. Hermione nodded her head.

“Come” she asked of him and pulled him to the living room, outside of their bedroom. “The most important rule of time traveling is simple: You must not be seen. Now, I am going to do one turn. One hour. We will use a charm to see ourselves asleep in bed. You can’t make any noise. After that, we stay in the living room until time is up.” She explained. He focused on her explanation. He nodded once. She stood on her tiptoes and placed the chain around his neck and hers. She concentrated on the dials of the Timeturner and gave it one turn. The room spun around her. Hermione barely remembered that at the beginning the traveling had made her dizzy. She removed the chain.

“I’m dizzy,” Viktor mentioned a hand reaching to rub his temple. She shushed him. She faced the closed door and cast a charm to see through the wall.

“We’re still asleep” she whispered as soft as she could. Viktor did not say anything. He looked at himself and herself asleep in each other’s arms.

“This is bizarre” he admitted. “Right now I am asleep and I am here at the same time.” He said.

“Yes, and you must not be seen. Especially by yourself.” She told him. She sat on the couch and he followed suit, almost landing in her lap. She snuggled against him. His arms wrapped around her.

“So, you would warn Kingsley and Harry?” he asked, coming round to the idea. She nodded. “What if we find the man instead?” he asked.

“I don’t know where he was before. I don’t know how he did what he did. The safest option is to somehow have the gala cancelled” she proposed.

“Hmm. And if he tries again?” he considered. “I think we have to be more prepared. Go back two days and tell Harry, for him to have the DMLE ready. Try to get as many people as possible not attending. Cancelling it gives him the possibility of making a new plan. We need for the ball to happen to catch him” Viktor thought out loud.

“If he really poisoned the drinks, that was planned beforehand. Switch the provider without the original one knowing. Then he would easily be outmaneuvered when the poison did not work.” She brainstormed with him.

“Was he there from before with a disguise?” he wondered. “Fuck, the whole thing was too big. I did not notice anyone before it all happened.”

“The best thing would be to crash the party just as it starts. Before the bar opens. I don’t know, burn the place down as the first guests arrive” Hermione thought out loud.

“That’s not a bad idea” Viktor followed. “That avoids all the deaths, but that still leaves out catching him.” He told her.

“Wait. Greengrass. Her date’s name was Raro.” She said. “I remember thinking he seemed to be foreign. But, let me google something.” She said to him. “Shit my phone is in the room.”

“Use my computer.” They went towards his pc. Hermione logged in and opened a new window. “It’s Spanish” she tackled a few keyboards with more force than necessary. Viktor turned to the closed door, but it remained closed.

“Fuck. Raro is Spanish for Strange. That was probably him. In disguise, obviously.”

“You’re certain?” Viktor asked

“No.” she admitted, deflated.

“It’s worth a shot” he told her.

“You’re sure?” she asked him.

“No” he admitted. “But this not about certainty, is it?” he said. The only thing Hermione knew for certain is that she could not do nothing.

“This is the plan we have” the unsaid **only** laid thick between them.

“We’ll go two days from now to the Ministry.” He told her. She nodded in agreement.

She glanced at the Timeturner. From the sand, it seemed they had twenty minutes left. They were probably about to get out of bed. “We have twenty more minutes” she told him. “Stay quiet” she asked him.

He sat at a nearby chair. She followed and sat on top of him.

“Fuck, you’re half hard.” She noticed his morning boner. Since they had been wearing clothes, she had not given attention to him. She went to stroke him. He raised one eyebrow. He looked at the door. She placed a finger on his lips and with her other hand brought his dick out from his pajama pants. Her hand stroked him a few times. He held his lips against each other to not make a noise. Hermione got on her knees and spit on his dick and then took it softly in her mouth. She traced her tongue on his tip and then flat against his length and reached the base. She heard a muffled moan. Just as a precaution, she cast a wordless and wandless Muffliato around them. She came back to the tip and swirled her tongue around it. His dick was starting to get hard under her attention. She pulled her mouth back until only her lips where touching his dick and then slowly took it all the way in again, she relaxed her throat and deepthroated him. She held still with him inside her, holding her breath with all his dick inside her mouth. After a few seconds she pulled back a little, about halfway she started back down and continued a fluid motion going up and down on him. His hands that had been on the chair besides his butt suddenly reached her head and guided her rhythm into something he preferred. She then did the deep throating trick again and heard another muffled moan. She could feel in her mouth that was already as hard as he would get. She removed her mouth and looked at him. One of her hands reached his wet dick. Her other hand started to pull down her pants. Quickly, she discarded her pants and sat on his dick.

“Mmm” he made the noise in pleasure. She had already gotten wet while sucking him off. His hands reached her hips and softly traced her waist and kept going up under her shirt. He found her breasts and tugged on her nipples. She held back a moan.

She lifted her hips until only his tip was grazing her wet pussy and then went down again. Her movements were slow and sweet. They needed to make this last as much as possible. His hands left her breasts to surround her back and dive to her butt cheeks. They made the round trip back to her breasts. He continued repeating the journey as she carefully rode his dick. Every so often, when she had him all the way in, she would arch her back to take him in deeper. After a while Hermione leaned forward on him, disabling his journey to her breasts but allowing herself to nip at his earlobe. He allowed two nips before twisting his head to kiss her. She greedily returned the kiss and then made her way down through his neck. He took a hand to her chin and pulled her back up to his lips. She took the opportunity of their joined mouths to muffle any noise and rose softly from his dick to then implant herself hard and deep. As she predicted, he moaned into her mouth. She repeated the motion a few times. She then did the same ending with leaning forward then backward. She continued that: up, down, forward, backward. She was getting tense and a particularly hard down movement made her tremble. While still kissing her, Viktor trailed a hand back to her arse, reached the cleft and then searched her arsehole. His finger pressed softly on it, asking for permission. She nodded her head.

“Yes” she said breathily in invitation. His finger entered her. Hermione continued going up, down, forward, backward. Getting tired, she started going in a forward and backward and gyrating her hips. He moaned the first time she gyrated. She moaned in response. His other hand wedged itself between their bodies and searched for her clit.

“Umpph” she vocalized when he found it. He tried to swallow her moan. He found it and pressed and then moved forward and back on it. In the same direction she had been rubbing against him. She felt tense. She wanted for him to come before she did. He wanted her to orgasm as well. They shook together. Hermione tensed up and her legs cramped as her orgasm coursed through her. When her pussy clenched around him, he also came. She could feel their combined juices drip from her pussy onto his dick. They continued to kiss after they completed each other. Hermione rested her forehead against his, and then he moved the tiniest bit to touch their noses and then their lips. His tongue darted out to her lips and then went to her mouth.

Around their hips, his dick started getting soft. She clenched her pussy muscles a little and he moaned. He did have a reaction. She did it twice more and he started to get hard again, a little. He stayed inside her while neither one of them moved.

They were going to change the world

* * *

After they laid in each other’s arms for a while, Hermione checked her hourglass again. The sand had settled back on the side of the present.

Viktor was uncomfortable about the whole premise of their plan. He had never traveled back in time except for the last hour. He was a hesitant time traveler. But, then again, so was she. They only had an idea of a plan.

“When I used this back in my third year it was to attend all the classes. I did not want to chose between the electives but wanted to take them all” Hermione told him. “That same year I left Divination without finishing it and after finals decided to not continue Muggle Studies.”

“You took Muggle Studies?” he arched an eyebrow in question. She nodded. “Somehow, even after knowing you for so long, you still surprise me” he said offhandedly.

“Good to know” she said and rose from her comfortable position in his lap. “Let’s get dressed.” It was almost noon already. They quickly found jeans and comfortable shirts. Hermione put her robe on over her casual clothes. “Honey, where were you two days ago at noon?” she asked. The gala is always on a Saturday, this year it had been moved to the weekend before the actual anniversary, considering this year the second of May was on a Wednesday.

“Friday noon?” he asked. “I had already left for practice.” He told her. “Left the house at ten.” He confirmed.

“Then we can do the hop from here and go to the Ministry. I had asked for the day to get my hair done so I was not at the Ministry all day Friday” she shared. He had already changed and was wearing comfortable clothes. Not their Sunday outfits. 

“Do we have a plan?” she asked him.

“Yes. We look for Harry, we convince him to go see Kingsley with us. We tell them both in order to get a response team ready. We switch the drinks. We still do not know how he poisoned them so somebody must always be guarding them. We make sure Kingsley and Harry don’t drink anything, just in case plan A does not work we have more back up to help us. We catch him as soon as we have an opportunity once he arrives with Greengrass” he summarized.

“Sounds good to me. If I have a moment after convincing Harry I will try to talk to Ginny and some of the others. But if too many people know it might leak back to him” she explained.

“Ready?” she asked him, producing her necklace. She rose to her tiptoes once more to pull it over his head. She then focused on the dial and changed it to days instead of hours. Carefully she did two turns.

She released the hourglass and they went back in time. Before the last two days had happened.

After the sand finished turning, she removed the chain and pocketed the Timeturner and chain in her front pocket. Viktor meanwhile cast a Tempus charm. It was 11:40 of Friday the 27th of April, 2012. Hermione watched as the numbers faded.

“Let’s go” she reached for his hand and turned towards the Floo. Viktor followed beside her.

They landed at the Ministry Atrium. Hermione knew her way around better than he did. She started towards the lifts that would take her to the DMLE. Their first stop was Harry’s office.

She was a few steps from his office when she heard him first “Hermione! I thought you were out with Ginny today?” he then looked at Viktor.

“Viktor, how are you?” he asked.

“I’m all right” he said. He outstretched his hand to shake with Harry. “Why are you here?” he asked. He turned to Hermione, a question on the tip of his tongue.

“Harry, we need to speak in private” she told him. Harry looked between them and then nodded.

“Let’s go to my office” he invited. They were near, Harry was probably also headed that way. He opened the door and let them in. Afterwards he cast a few locking charms on his door. “I wish I could say I am surprised, but I suspected something like this would happen for a very long time” he started.

“Harry, there’s something you need to know” Hermione did not waste time and took out the Timeturner to show to him.

“A Death Eater will attack the Gala tomorrow” Viktor said.

“You got a necklace along with a ring?” he spoke at the same time as Viktor looking at Hermione. “What?” he turned to Viktor. He then turned back to Hermione.

“It was Rodolphus Lestrange, Harry. He killed everyone, he killed you. It was a massacre!” she exclaimed. Harry plopped down into the nearest chair.

“I don’t understand. How do you know this? Why are you talking as if it already happened?” he asked. He glanced again at the necklace and pendant Hermione was holding. Hermione came closer and he snapped it out of her hands. “A Time turner? Hermione, you know full well the consequences of meddling with time! What the hell were you thinking?” he looked at the hourglass and then between the two of them.

He sighed and, if possible, collapsed further into the chair.

“I thought you were coming here to tell me the two of you were engaged” he rubbed his forehead and skewed his glasses in the process. He rectified them and looked between the two of them.

“Well, yes, but, how do you know?” Hermione asked. She reached to take the Timeturner back from Harry. He did not return it. Instead he took her hand.

“Well, it is rather obvious” he observed the diamond on her finger.

“Eh, we probably should have left that behind” Viktor said. They had had the sense to leave their phones behind. “We have enough time too plan how to stop Lestrange” Viktor brought the conversation again to the more important situation.

“When did you guys get engaged?” Harry asked.

“Yesterday. Tomorrow” Hermione told him. Shite, it was confusing.

“In public?” he asked again.

“Are you crazy?” she said,

“Are you daft?” he said at the same time. If one thing was true about their relationship: they liked their privacy. Always had.

“Harry, that is not important right now. Tomorrow a Death Eater will poison all the drinks with a potion of his own making that petrifies everyone attending the ball. Once the potion is in full effect he will kill many people. I don’t know if he knows or, not, but after a while petrified and unable to move, to breath, everybody present dies tomorrow. I saw Lucius Malfoy being walked around like a puppet, probably already dead. I saw Ginny bleed to death after this horrible man cast Sectumsempra point blank at her chest” she said. Harry reacted to that.

“I’m calling Ginny” he said.

“Harry, talk to her later, in person. Right now, she is with me” Hermione told him. “We need to stop him. But we need to catch him as well”

“You always have a plan, so let’s hear it”

“Not yet. We should go find the Minister” Viktor interrupted. “Then we only go over the plan once, and if some new idea comes forward, we are all in the loop.”

Harry nodded and they headed out.

* * *

Once they managed to get a hold of Kingsley and sit at his office, it was Viktor that did the talking. He explained carefully what was going to happen and how the poison had been in all the drinks.

After hearing them out, Kingsley started with his questions.

“How did you time travel?” he asked them.

“I had a Timeturner, it was at Hogwarts, I had used it before, I told Minerva I was going to give it to Master Newton. I am. I mean, I had left it somewhere safe and took it with the intention to give it back. All the others are broken. The source of time sand is dry, and it is complicated to make more.” She started blabbing. Viktor reached to grab her hand. He grabbed her tight to tell her to focus on her tale. “When this happened, I just knew that I had to do something.” She explained.

“I see. Do you have any idea what can happen if you are time traveling? First off, you will be suspended once this is over. This is reckless and irresponsible.” He sighed. “However, we have to stop the gala from happening. I will cancel it right now.” He said.

“Kings, how are we going to stop him if we cancel the gala? He will take another opportunity, hell, wait for next year. We know where he will be tomorrow. I think it makes more sense to hold the gala and start preparing a response team. Warn as many people as we can. Find out what we can from now to tomorrow. Since you know and I know and they know, we can be prepared. I am certain I can put together a team undercover and another with a surprise attack.”

“You’re certain it was Rodolphus Lestrange?” he looked at Hermione. She nodded.

“Positive.” She said.

“He supposedly died at the Battle of Hogwarts, has not been seen since then. Never.” He continued.

“Hermione, you and Viktor can’t go this time round” Harry turned to her.

“Actually,” Viktor interrupted. “We could. As soon as you finish your speech.”

“But you were there!” Harry exclaimed.

“Um, we weren’t exactly with everyone. That’s why nothing happened to us. We …” Hermione trailed off, looked to Viktor for help. He avoided her eye contact. “I guess we had our own party?” Hermione shrugged.

“But… Nevermind. Harry, you go start working on your teams. Fuck, I don’t know what you’re going to say to get this done but I don’t care. You two are staying with me until the gala. I don’t want any risks of you being seen” he said. Hermione admitted that despite their best intentions, they had not thought anything through. If they had waited a little while for detectives, healers and more help they would have known more about how Lestrange got in, if he had had inside help. If there was an antidote or a cure for the effects of the poison, even if it seemed quite fast acting.

What they had was nothing but a hunch that Lestrange had gone to the ball with Greengrass.

* * *

In the end, Viktor and Hermione had taken Polyjuice themselves for the beginning of the Gala. Harry insisted on this given that they would probably be the best ones to recognize him. Even if he was wearing a disguise or even possibly Polyjuice as well during the event. Half a dozen Aurors were undercover at the bar and as waiters. A team of twenty was waiting to Apparate to the premises when the time was right. Harry and Kingsley had their speeches, for all appearances they acted normal.

A few faces had been reached and were absent. Harry spoke to Draco and the Malfoy family had skipped pretending Daphne was having premature contractions and stayed at home with her. Bill and Fleur stayed home with Molly who was taking care of George’s twins. Andromeda Tonks was warned. Kingsley made sure all Department Heads in attendance were aware but did not skip anything. Harry wanted for Ginny to skip but that would have been too obvious. She was told to not drink anything and be on her toes, she had been one of the specific targets. Hermione did not want to have to see that again.

Hermione and Viktor were wearing all black and had sat at a table near the entrance where they could observe anyone. Their donors had a similar figure, both from the DMLE. They saw a lot of people coming before the speech. Astoria Greengrass had yet to make an appearance. Their hands were clasped together on top of the table and they were facing each other. Their body language spoke volumes that they wanted to be left alone and so far, nobody had approached their table.

Hermione saw the past Viktor arrive. As he entered, a dark-haired witch with huge breasts had come over to him. She smiled at him and leaned forward to show off her cleavage. She even placed a hand on his biceps trying to engage him in conversation. He showed little interest. The way he never actually faced her with his body was clearly indicative. He also carefully removed her hand and gave it back to her. Hermione say how Viktor wasn’t rude but made it very clear to her, despite her insinuations. He walked away and the woman seemed to deflate a little. Hermione’s gaze then went back to the main entrance. She kissed his cheek.

“I love you” she said. She did not know if he had just seen what she did but did not say anything further.

“Love you more” he replied without his eyes moving from the door. She felt his response in his grip. She just smiled to herself. He was a man on a mission. The Viktor besides her had a mission to find that bastard and save everybody present. The Viktor on the other side of the room had a different mission: find his woman.

“Fuck, this is useless, we do now know what we are looking for” he said, frustrated.

“You’ve seen Astoria. We’re looking for her or someone suspicious.” She tried calmly. She had more patience than him. He liked being active and moving. She could spend a whole afternoon curled up reading or in front of the computer until her whole body was stiff. He grunted in response.

“What if this does not work?” Viktor sighed.

“We do it again” she said simply.

“We can’t be in three places at once,” Viktor said with a forethought of a headache if he continued that line of thought.

“Then we better get it right this time” Hermione said. The place was starting to fill up. Nothing had grabbed their attention yet and Astoria Greengrass was notably absent.

“Do you think she knew?” Hermione asked. “Astoria, did she know about the plan? Did she leave before? I did not even notice if there were people missing.” She admitted. Viktor heard her but thought that the question was rhetorical. Sometimes she would just bounce ideas off him and figure things out by herself. Most of the time he answered her rhetorical questions, but not now.

Hermione then saw Harry, Ginny and herself arrive. Quite a few heads turned towards them.

Hermione saw Ginny choose a table and then made a beeline for it.

A few minutes later Quincy stood on the podium, used a Sonorus to call for attention. The Hall quieted down.

“Thank you for coming to the Commemoration of the Battle of Hogwarts Annual Gala” he started. Hermione noticed how he look down briefly, he was probably using cue cards. “This year is the 14th anniversary. As you know, this is the second year that the funds from this gala are going to renewed Hogwarts Apprenticeship programs that had been abandoned for the last few decades.”

Hermione tuned him out and started looking around. Astoria was, Hermione figured it out, fashionably late.

“There’s too many people here. I don’t know many of them” Viktor said to her. “Not sure if someone looks suspicious” he said.

“Hmm.” Hermione kept looking around. A lot of familiar faces, but not all of them. She saw that Harry’s new colleague, aux Villes or something, was at the bar. He, obviously, left empty-handed. Hermione followed him with her gaze, he had gone to sit at the table Ginny and herself were sitting, he had not done that the first time around, but then again, he probably had been warned that there was going to be an attack as had all the DMLE. Hermione noticed now it was Harry talking. Kingsley would soon sit with them.

She turned her face towards the door again. Daphne had yet to arrive.

“Babe,” Viktor asked. “How much more will the Polyjuice last?” he asked. He clenched his hands, uncomfortable in this skin. She glanced at her wrist, a small watch that used to be her mother’s was on he wrist. “About twenty more minutes or so” she told him. “Just in time for Harry’s speech to end.”

“Can you see us?” he asked. Hermione saw herself sitting at the table with Ginny, the Shacklebolts, and aux Villes. She scanned the room for Viktor and saw him off to a side, his hand held something small like a snitch but black in his hands. She looked eyes with him, not meaning to. She looked away fast, knowing full her she was about to blush.

“I see both of us, and your younger self just saw me. Noticed me staring” she admitted. Was that going to mess with his memories?, she wondered. “Nothing to worry about,” she said just in case.

“I don’t know.” He said. If there was a new memory in his brain he ignored it. He scanned the room repeatedly, finding nothing out of the ordinary. The whole event was too big.

“I think we are not going to find him until he shows himself,” he complained.

“We still do not act until he shows himself, even if we spot him” Hermione reminded him. “We don’t know if Raro is our guy, that’s just a hunch” she admitted.

“ **Let’s not forget those we lost** ” Harry’s speech ended. Hermione saw herself stand up from the table leaving the rest. Then she glanced back to the entrance and, sure enough, there was Astoria Greengrass and her beau making a perfect fashionably late entrance, just as the speeches had ended. They probably waited outside for that, Hermione thought.

Viktor rose from her side and she noticed two more people were coming closer to the couple. Without many people noticing, they were escorted out. Hermione reached her arm out to him and held him back. “You don’t have to do that” she stopped him. “We need to see what happens next”

They did not have to wait much.

Some people had been warned about the spiked drinks but not all. They had supposedly intercepted that, but it seemed that did not work.

Hermione noticed a couple from the table next to herself had frozen mid speech. They were staring at each other. Cutlery mid-air.

“Viktor, look” she asked him. She stood and he followed. It was a table that would fit six but there was only one couple in this table so far back. Hermione sat besides the man, took his pulse and waved her hand before his eyes. His pupils dilated in fear and his eyes moved slightly towards her.

“The poison still got out” she said. “We need to tell Kingsley” she said. She looked towards Viktor and saw her future husband staring back at her. The Polyjuice had worn off.

He noticed as well. He cracked his own knuckles.

Hermione and Viktor headed towards the table with Harry and Kingsley. Sitting there was Ginny, Anita, Harry and Kingsley.

“Where is aux Villes?” Hermione asked out loud, looking around.

“Hermione,” Viktor said with a hand in Harry’s shoulder. He was not reacting. Hermione covered her face with her hand. But, they had been warned! There were no glasses on the table.

Viktor had waved over some of the undercover Aurors,

“Hermione, we have to leave” Viktor said. And he was right, any second now the original Hermione and Viktor would notice that the party was too quiet.

“Fuck.” Hermione cursed.

“Are Greengrass and Raro is custody?” she asked the closest Auror. He nodded. “Take me there” she asked, and Viktor and herself went with him.

* * *

After a lot of questioning, they had to let Raro and Daphne go. They had nothing to do with anything. They even used Veritaserum. Raro was really just a foreigner that had come to enjoy the evening with Daphne.

They did not know what to do. Again, there had been a massacre that Healers did not know what had petrified over a hundred people. Only this time, Lestrange had not shown himself at all. He had run. Hermione tried to think what else was different.

Viktor had been very frustrated. They had gone to Grimmauld Place while their other selves would be in Utrecht. Beforehand, they had gone to the Ministry while their other selves stayed at the Gala. Once it was safe that there was only one Viktor and one Hermione in the present, they went to see the surviving Weasleys.

It had been terrible.

* * *

They arrived back home at around noon, they had taken what few belongings Hermione had at Grimmauld place and brought them over. It was awkward and depressing to stay in Grimmauld with everyone else gone.

They had both agreed that they had tried to fix this and Time did not allow them.

If Time is a river, it will always correct its flow. She had heard Master Newton say as much once. Most things are too important to be corrected. It is not so much about fate but about inevitability.

They went back to his flat in Utrecht Sunday and only stayed a few minutes. They changed clothes and then flooed to Bulgaria to tell his family about their engagement. Also, to get the farthest away from England.

“Finally” Mrs. Krum, or Anya as she insisted Hermione called her, smiled. “I helped him pick it out, you know” She was incredibly sweet. “You must get married here,” she said. They were both more than happy to oblige her a ceremony in Sofia.

“I’d love to” Hermione said. Viktor only nodded. His father and his brother congratulated him.

“It has been quite a long time” Alexei said. “Almost ten years since the two of you meet” he joked. Though, it was more than that actually. Now, in 2012, they had probably lived together about five or six years. But they had met when she was in her fourth year, 1994, she had come to visit the summer of 1995 and after that Viktor had wisely stayed out of England. They had gotten started seeing each other again a few years after the war, and they were officially dating before she moved to Geneva.

“We actually met sixteen years ago, when I was fifteen” she admitted. “And we started dating when I was twenty-one”

Did time really go that fast? She was going to be thirty-three this year. Viktor was going to be thirty-six this year. Either way, his family had warmed up to her and she considered them her family as well.

His family also understood that for the second time, England was in mourning. They told them they could stay at long as they wanted. However, Utrecht was not England and Viktor did have to go to work. Hermione assured them all that they would visit more.

* * *

On Monday, Hermione went to the Ministry, avoiding people as much as possible. She, along with Viktor, had been one of ten persons, other than Aurors, that had survived. Despite their warning, eight other people had survived. They were not able to save Harry nor Ginny. Minerva has been saved. A few Hogwarts Professors had been lost. Asides from Harry and Kingsley, the rest of the Heads of Departments had been spared. Amelia Bones had been promoted to Minister of Magic.

They had to move forward from this.

But Hermione could not. She should, but she had the Timeturner locked in her vanity, even though she told Viktor she had returned it first thing Monday. That was untrue. She had gone to the Ministry to present her resignation and copy some books. She spent less than an hour at the Ministry. She had spent all day researching how to make the Timeturner move forward, so she could go further back in time to prevent all this from happening and then come home to Viktor.

She calculated as many variables as she could think of on Monday and left a mess in the living room. When Viktor got home from training, she pounced on him and the night went by far too fast for them. She woke in his arms before he did. She woke up him with a blowjob before he left for work.

Once he had left, she took her handy purple beaded bag, three changes of clothes, her time travel books and about five hundred galleons. She also raided her potion ingredients and reread the many articles and books published the upcoming weeks for the Battle of Hogwarts as well the following weeks. Lastly, she took Sunday’s paper. Just in case she needed proof to get someone on her side. She only needed one ally, per her current calculations.

She hoped this worked. She hesitated again, but then knew she had to do this.

She Apparated to Hogwarts, Minerva was supposed to meet her but instead it was Hagrid who was waiting for her at the gate. She had not told Minerva her plan, she was simply pretending that they would have lunch. She smiled at him.

“Hagrid” Hermione greeted him. He was also quite subdued from all that had happened. Hermione lifted her wand and produced a memory of Harry, Hagrid and herself from their third year. A happy memory.

“Thank you, Hermione” he said. “I miss him” he shared. She did too. She walked with him halfway to the castle while she prepared herself for what she was going to do.

Suddenly, she turned her wand on Hagrid and made him forget he ever saw her today.

“Obliviate” she said above a whisper. Gods, she hated that spell.

She saw him making his way towards his home, Fang barked when he got in and Hermione went inside the castle. She cast herself in the shadow of the hooded robe she was wearing and stuck to the shadows amongst the castle. She knew that the Room of Requirement and most classrooms would be full of people. She needed to arrive somewhere where they would be nobody.

She arrived at the Library first and looked for Madame Olsen.

“Hello” she said, to grab her attention from a file she was organizing.

“Mrs. Granger. I heard about your friends. I am very sorry” she said. She had not attended, luckily,

“Thank you, Olga” she said. “I had been wanting to return a book that Minerva lent me to the Forbidden Section, could you help me?” she stated. Half the truth was often a whole lie, she thought to herself as she showed an old looking book to her.

Olga reached a drawer that she probably had charmed against meddling teenagers and took out a set of rusty keys. As Olga turned to look at her again, Hermione once more cast the charm that she hated the most. She took the keys from her and watched her return to her file.

Hermione sighed in relief and then went towards the Restricted Section and locked herself in.

Here she took a deep breath and took the Timeturner with the gold chain and placed it around her neck. It was two minutes to twelve o’clock when she started fiddling with the dial of the time turner to take her back fourteen years.

She was done as soon as the clock struck twelve. She heard the bell ding once, twice and then no more as the was transported back in time.

She landed and steadied herself against a nearby bookcase. She cast a Tempus Charm and let out a sigh of relief.

12:01 of Friday the 1° of May, 1998 

“Great” she said just above a whisper.

* * *

Not many people knew, hell, probably this was a secret passed on from Headmaster to Headmaster, even though Dumbledore never had the courtesy of informing him. The Castle is sentient, and the castle asides from anti Apparition wards had many others in its very foundations.

He felt it at the same time as the castle did. There was someone new, someone that did not belong to the castle, that had just appeared in the Library. He left what he was doing and started towards this new presence, unsure if it was sent by his Master or not. Unsure if whoever it was would help him or not.

Whoever it was he felt them leave the Library and carefully make their way down. Whoever it was used secret passages, some that few students were aware of, and found shadows to hide in. The Headmaster eventually saw a woman, under a nondescript black cloak, Disillusioned as well.

But he had ways of knowing. He realized he had gone back to the third floor following her. She disillusioned herself but kept her hood on before addressing the Gargoyle guarding the entrance to his office.

“I came to see the Headmaster” she asked her gargoyle. It remained unmoving. As it would so long as he was out of the office.

“Who are you?” he announced his presence behind her. She turned, brandishing a wand in his face. At least she had a good reaction.

“I’m a time-traveler, Headmaster” she told him. “You know who I am” she told him. He looked at the woman in front of him. She did remind him of someone, but it could not be.

“Come inside, you fool” he told her, and the gargoyle stepped aside to let them both in. He stopped in the middle of the staircase and turned his wand on her.

“If you are who I think you are, prove it” he said above a whisper, as threatening as he could be. The woman in front of him was way older than Hermione Granger.

“I set you on fire on my first year, and you know I figured out Lupin was a werewolf from the essay you sent us in third year” She raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. She let the hood that had been protecting her fall of as well. She looked much older than he remembered.

“Ms. Granger” he admitted, still short of believing it. “Why are you here?”

“To save everyone, off course” she said to him. “Including you, sir” she assured him. He gave a short nod before allowing her to enter his office.

There was a bare desk with a single black quill and black inkpot. Somehow even though it was the middle of the day the room was quite dark.

“Where do you come from?” he asked.

“Well, before coming to Hogwarts, I was in my home in Utrecht.” Smart girl had left England at some point.

“When do you come from?” he asked again.

“Now, that is a better question, Headmaster Snape” she had the nerve to smile at him. Nobody smiled at him. “2012” she shared.

“It’s going to be that long?” he asked, just the thought of it made him exhausted. “Bloody hell,” he cursed “Did we lose, Ms. Granger?” he wondered, not really wanting to answer her.

“Headmaster, I need your help. And I need for you to live for that” she told him.

“Well, I am quite alive, so spit it out.” He told her impatiently.

“As far as how history tells it, you die tomorrow” she told him. “The only reason I came this far back is to warn you. The only thing I can and will change of the next twenty-four hours is you dying.” She told him.

“Didn’t you just say you were going to save everyone?” he replied, irritated, and honestly, confused.

“I will. Fourteen years from now a Death Eater appears after many years thought dead, and he kills many of my friends and many witches and wizards.” She told him plainly. “He develops a poison that petrifies and kills, and he awaited the right time for a massacre” she told him. She held her head high, but he noticed a small tremble in her voice with the last word.

“What?” All of the Dark Lords poison experiments were his or supervised by him. He had developed a brew that petrified for twenty-four hours, but nothing that killed. “There’s no known potion that can do that,” he said with the authority of a Potion Master.

“It just hasn’t been developed yet” she patiently told him. “I come from more than ten years in the future, as you can see I haven’t aged well” she joked. If he had to guess she was maybe twenty five, but if it was more than a decade she was at least twenty-eight. She did not look like a child, just quite young.

“How do you pretend to save me?” he shook his head. “How do I die?” she gulped.

“I saw it happen.” She replied, ashamed. “Nagini bit you” she said. He reached a hand to his neck, almost as if he knew.

“Can we save you?” she asked him. “Is there an antivenin?” She asked of him with genuine preoccupation. It amazed him to see anyone interested in his life.

“I am supposed to die” he said, comprehension of what she was saying and an old truth that he had accepted quite a while ago.

“I came here to prevent that. Tell me what to do, and when the time is right, I will interfere” she said to him.

“There’s nothing to do!” he exclaimed. “I have already lived more than I should. I should have died a long time ago” he said. He was exhausted. He had led a double life for a very long time. “There’s no reason for me to survive.” He said.

“After the war was over, it took the DMLE about five or six years to finish with the ones that had escaped from them, but he was wrong. There was a Death Eater that remained. One that I know of. But what if he was not acting alone? What if there are more?” she explained. “You know who they are, you know where they could hide. You can help me if you let me help you first” she insisted. “I want to save you, you deserve a time in your life where you are not afraid of one master or another, where you will make the plan and I will follow.”

“You say all this as if I belong do the Order of the Phoenix” he argued. “You know I killed Dumbledore” he said with shame. She nodded.

“I know you saved him,” she replied. “He was already dying. He asked you for mercy” she said.

“If I’m supposed to die, how do you know this?” he said.

“You’ll get your chance to share some memories with Harry” she said, not saying anything further. He nodded once.

“Wha—”

“I know you’re a good person, Headmaster, who life only gave bad options and bad choices. As I told Harry throughout all our years at Hogwarts, you are trying to save us.” she said.

He remained inmutable for a moment. Thinking.

“The best moment to administer the one antivenin I have been able to produce for Nagini’s venom is within twenty minutes of the bite. If you saw it happen, you know where and when it will happen.”

“I know where, I’m not sure of the time. There were a lot of things happening that night.” She told him.

“Do I want to know? Fuck, I need to know. As much as you can tell me, Granger” he said.

“Right now, my present self is impersonating Bellatrix Lestrange using Polyjuice … inside Gringotts. We have the sword of Gryffindor with us and a goblin is helping us. However, he will turn on us and take the sword. We will find a Horcrux inside Gringotts, inside the Black Vault. In order to escape, we will take a blind and weak dragon that the goblins have had guarding the oldest and largest vaults where we find it. The other two horcruxes we need to find will be here at Hogwarts tonight, one is here. One will come with Vol-

“Don’t say his name!” He exclaimed. “Fuck, you probably don’t know this but there is a Taboo on his name. That’s how they found many of the opposition. Only those who dared confront him would ever use the name."

“One of the horcruxes Riddle will bring along with him when he comes tonight. You don’t need to know what they are just that we need to destroy them.” She told him. “And I refuse to say you-know-who” she said mockingly. “Fear of a name only increases fear of a thing itself.”*

“Horcruxes? Plural?” he reiterated. He ignored her defiant comment. For her, it had probably been a long time without war.

“Yes. Now can you keep from your master that you know this or do I need to obliviate you once you give me the potions I need to save you?” she chastised him.

“I’ve come this far” he replied, annoyed. He knew how to keep a secret.

“Do you have the antivenin with you?” she asked.

“Not here.” He said. He stood up to go to this old potions lab, the one Horace had ignored in favour of only the classroom. “Do something about that hair so there’s no chance someone will recognize you. If someone asks, you’re a Death Eater, you don’t speak. Is that clear?” he said. She was quite certain that nobody would dare cross their path nor ask him anyways. She placed a Mirage on herself to make her hair flat and black.

She had to hurry to keep up with his strides and billowing robes through the halls as they went deep in the dungeons. He reached a stone door and opened it with his palm.

Hermione had only been here a few times, once to refute a grade and for detentions.

“Whenever I have spare time I come here to brew. I am stocking the Infirmary,” he explained the simmering cauldrons and half-way done potions. “But, despite my help, students keep disappearing. And I cannot question my fellow Death Eaters without giving away that I also do not know where they are. I know they are still inside the castle and that is all.” He said to her.

“They’re in the Room of Requirement” she shared as she came closer to a cauldron with a dense silvery fume coming out of it. She did not lean too much into it. “Is this a Wit-gathering Potion?” she asked him.

“Yes.” He glared at her. “What is it you do in the future?” he asked.

“Oh, I went into Gringotts and worked in Banking and International Trade for a while, lived in Geneva, now I am currently living off my boyfriend, I guess. I do have some savings” she carefully omitted the part of the Department of Mysteries.

“Off your boyfriend?” he wrinkled his nose in distaste.

“Mhm” she corroborated.

“Mostly only Masters would recognize that Potion as it is, it’s in the later phases” he told her.

“I read a lot” she said by way of explanation.

“I guess that’s the best answer and non-answer at the same time. I will let you keep your secrets, then, Granger” he said.

“Sir, you can call me Hermione, right now you’re only about five years older than me and I have not been your student in a long time” she said to him.

“You were my student just last year!” he exclaimed. “Fine, for you it’s been over a decade. Christ, how old are you?” he asked.

“Thirty-two,” she replied. She quite purposely left the sir out of the end of her response. He noticed as well.

“As I am still older than, I will allow you to call me Snape and not Headmaster” he said.

“Are you sure, Severus?” she asked, rolling the s’s in his name and sitting on his stool. He ignored her in favor of reaching for the potions he would need.

“Nagini’s venoms has three components. One anticoagulant venom, so the victim will firstly bleed to death and two withering venoms, that means that is someone somehow managed to control the bleeding it will consume the person’s magic until it is depleted.” He told her. She paid close attention. He passed her a large flask with contained an amber liquid labeled simply Nagini. This was probably the antivenin. The stopper was a dropper.

“Ten drops on the bite and two drops in the mouth” he told her. “It is quite strong. I will probably pass out before the twenty minutes pass, so you must be careful. Then half the dose every eight hours.” He turned quickly and his cape flew out once more. He was gathering more potions.

Suddenly he dropped one of them.

Hermione saw a green liquid which was probably a Blood Replenishing Potion spill on the floor, irretrievable. She came closer to him.

“Evanesco” she cast as the cleaned the small puddle. He was clutching the rest of the vials in his left hand, she saw his pain and took them from him.

“Blood Replenishing Potion, Dittany Balm and Liquid Rennervate” she named the potions now in her hands. He nodded.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. He merely gritted through the pain. He showed her his Dark Mark which was burning up.

“I am being summoned.” He said through the pain. “Try to not let me die, if I am still in the castle, I can summon you to my side. Stay disillusioned and keep that physical façade up. You cannot be seen” he echoed her third-year rule.

“Be safe, I will come to you when the time is right” she said to him.

He stormed out of his lab, leaving her inside.

She further inspected his potions stock to see if there was anything else that might be useful. She also thought that his Wit – Gathering Potion was two steps from ready, even if it had not simmered for a fortnight for the best potency, the least was five days … and it had already been ten. She decided to finish it to take it with them. 

She also needed something to do while she waited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. This is just under ten thousand words.  
> I wrote and rewrote and changed so many parts. If something is messed up, I apologize. 
> 
> You must have a lot of questions.  
> And all I can say is that the answers will come with each chapter. 
> 
> Time is a tricky little thing, isnt it?


	6. The Far Away Chaser

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.” – Albert Einstein

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing

_May 5, 1998_

The last thing he remembered was Harry’s eyes, Lily’s eyes. He noticed that the boy was not alone. Soon after that he had blacked out.

Severus felt high as a kite. Yet grounded and wet. His face was cool and moist, he had no idea how long he had been unconscious. He had opened his eyes a few times, but nothing came to mind. He was unsure if he had felt something wet against his skin. He was sure he had seen a lot of blood at some point. At one point he woke and all he saw was sky. Later, or maybe before, time was fuzzy, he had woken to a plain white ceiling with wooden banisters.

He was unsure when he was in Morpheus’ kingdom or if he was closer to the underworld. Time was ambiguous. He tried to open his eyes but there was something heavy on top of them. Was he so weak he could not even open his eyes?

He slept again. In his dreams, he thought that dying would be more painful.

He woke and his first concern was that his wand was not in his holster. Fuck. He had no idea where he was. He then noticed he was only wearing half of his clothes. Shite, he had probably been mugged, somebody saw his unconscious body and thought him dead. He looked around and noticed he was in a bedroom. He thought he had been outside when he passed out. Or after. At some point.

He tried to wandlessly cast Accio in search for his wand. Wherever he was, he had never been here before. He was not at Hogwarts. After spending so much time inside the castle where magic was overly abundant, this place felt empty. His wand did not come forth. That would be the first time that spell did not work. He was quite proficient in wandless magic, until now it seems. He tried to pull himself to a sitting position, and barely managed it. He felt difficulty breathing just from the effort of sitting up.

He felt dizzy. He closed his eyes and one of his hands reached his temple. There was little pain and the edges of his sight were dark. He saw a table besides the bed: there lay his gloves, his watch and his wand. It was right there. He reached for it carefully, apparently his body had decided that fast movements were not an option. He held it in his hand and felt safe. He closed his eyes, trying to remember anything of the night before. He only saw Nagini pouncing towards him.

His left hand reached for his neck. He thought he was going to feel something but there was nothing there. No Scar.

He heard a door open and he turned towards it, wand aimed.

“Oh” a woman stood under the door, it was been semi closed before but now it was wide open. He saw too much skin. The woman was wearing shorts that he would have sworn even before seeing them from the other side did not cover all of her butt. In seconds, she produced her wand as well.

“Your magical core is depleted, Headmaster, even if you have your wand in your hand, you will not be able to cast anything. I am not going to harm you” she said. He looked the woman up and down, her legs were creamy and toned, her hair was curly and not frizzy, her teeth were straight and white. But the face reminded him of someone.

“Who are you?” he asked. He felt that he should remember but could not, there was a hint of recognition but nothing certain.

“I’m sorry, its Hermione Granger, do you remember we spoke?” she asked. The man in front of her shook his head. She took a few steps forward and placed her wand in the table alongside his watch and gloves. With both her hands and most of her body she coached him to lay back in bed again. She was not that tall, honestly, and the Headmaster was a tall man.

“You still need a few more days to recover your strength and your magic” she told him.

“Yes, we spoke, I told you how to save me” he said.

“Yes, sir. And here we are” she said to him, his body had acquiesced to returning to lay flat on the bed under her watchful eye. He hated it. He needed to get up, see what had happened to the school.

“I need to…” he started to say.

“No” she interrupted. “Your magical core is depleted; you need rest and…” he noticed she hesitated. “We need to stay hidden” she said softly and looked down as she said it.

“But, the school…” he told her.

“Hogwarts is fine. There were some losses, but you are alive, and we need to focus on that” she told him. “Anyways, I can’t be seen, and you are wanted by the Wizengamot, I think we should lay low for a few days or weeks” she shared.

“What happened yesterday?” he asked. She lifted her head again and her mocha brown eyes stared into his. “Did we win?”

“Yes, we won. He’s dead.” She told him without uttering the name. He closed his eyes in relief. He fell asleep again. Hermione took his wand from his hand and left it again on his bedside table. It would be maybe another three days until he was well enough to use it.

Hermione had been giving him the potions as he instructed and quite liberally given him Blood Replenishing Potion, she was unsure how much was too much. He had run a fever a few hours after she brought him here. The first place se had thought of was her parent’s abandoned house. She had run a bath for him and placed him with his clothes on which she later spelled dry. She had stayed beside him continuously at the beginning. She had changed clothes yesterday when she finally noticed how the clothes she had time traveled with were full of blood.

He was making progress. She checked the old but current calendar in her parent’s old room. She managed to get the Daily Prophet by owling in a subscription under her own name, since she had beforehand subscribed her parents at their previous address it was not a problem.

This had proved useful. She had been comparing the newspapers she brought with her to the ones being published now and, so far, nothing had changed. Everybody thought Snape dead despite there not being any corpse. She could not recall from before if they ever found a body. In any measure, this slight change was not a deep one… so far. 

She heard him moan in his sleep, she looked at him and ran his vital signs. There was no fever and his heart rate was steady. It was probably just a nightmare, but it was best to let him sleep. Dreamless Sleep Potion usually had so many interactions with other potions that she did not dare give him a dose.

She sat on a comfortable sofa with her feet tucked under her legs and buried her nose in A Brief History of Time.

* * *

_July 5, 1998_

She observed her naked body in the mirror. She had shaved almost all the hair in her body earlier. She had washed and scrubbed and washed again. Her skin was red from all the scrubbing. Her face was also red. It had hurt. He did not seem to notice that she was in pain as he had quickly penetrated her and thrusted twice more before finishing. “It gets better with time” he had told her. She simply nodded and held back the tears from the pain. She wanted to curl into a ball but did not. He had quickly fallen asleep, she noticed as he started snoring. She carefully moved her body and asides from stiff felt okay. The pain had gone. She felt dirty, so she left his bed to go take a shower.

Now staring at herself in the mirror, her hair damp, skin bright red and clean, she noticed her curves and despite it being a very long time since she had had sex, a part of her was glad this was not her first time.

She got dressed in her pajamas and went downstairs to get some tea.

Harry was there already nursing a cup of his own.

“Hey” Hermione said. She reached for hot water and some earl grey. She sat not too close to Harry to let him have his own musings. The quiet was comfortable between the two of them for a few seconds.

Suddenly their silence was disrupted by two heavy sighs.

They made eye contact afterwards and he started to laugh a moment before her.

“Couldn’t sleep?” he finally dared to ask.

“I keep thinking something terrible is going to happen” she admitted, which was true but there was also something else she was not willing to share with him. He probably heard how long she took in the shower, though.

“Me too” he admitted. “There were many Death Eaters and bodies unaccounted for.” He shared his concern.

“The Ministry is searching for them, things are changing, this is no longer our responsibility.” She told him. “Or at least it should be a weight off our shoulders” she shrugged. Her hands were clasped around her mug, trying to feel some warmth.

“Yes” was his monosyllabic response. He stared into his cup; he preferred his tea strong.

Hermione rose from her seat and came closer to him. “Come on, get up.” She asked of him. He raised his head slowly and saw her standing beside him with open arms. He stood and walked into her embrace. _Things will be better_ , her hug transmitted to him.

“Thanks, Hermione,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep” he admitted.

“Me neither, not today at least” They settled back with their teas and Harry brought over a set of dominoes to play with. They spent most of the night playing.

The following morning, Ron woke up to an empty bed and when he reached the kitchen there were pancakes and fresh tea waiting for him. He kissed Hermione good morning before settling to eat some pancakes.

“These are great, mate, much better than Hermione’s cooking” he said to them. Hermione let the comment slide and focused on her fifth tea since last night. She did not want to argue with him, but she never had the ingredients to do something like this last year.

She had already eaten some and had complimented Harry on his cooking before. Kreacher had been quite upset that Harry made breakfast. Hermione asked him to make her some tea to appease the elf.

Grimmauld Place was cold, and tea was always good.

Soon after an owl came with the Daily Prophet. The front-page mentioned reparations done at Hogwarts. The second page had a list of missing persons. Hermione scanned the list: Ted Tonks, who had been missing for over three months now, Andromeda had said he had gone into hiding. Walden MacNair, a known Death Eater and Ministry Executioner. Severus Snape, Death Eater. Dennis Creevey, Hogwarts Student. There were many others she did not know.

On the third page was the Obituary ongoing from the day before. Most missing persons have, one by one, been found dead.

After he finished with his eggs and pancakes, Ron peered over her shoulder to see the paper. He breathed into her neck. Hermione stiffened a little at the sensation, thinking of last night and for the moment unwilling to repeat it just yet.

The floo in the other room flared to life and a well-known voice called to them.

“In the kitchen, Arthur” Harry was the first to respond. Hermione shuffled on to the next page, but Ron stopped her. The inconvenience of their current position was not only that Hermione read faster. She unglued her eyes from the paper since he had clearly taken over. She stood to greet and hug Arthur.

“Good morning, Mr. Weasley” she said with a smile and went to hug him. He had already returned to work at the Ministry the day before. She then noticed that his smile was forced.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Sandy Perkins was found,” he told them. The unvoiced word hung thick between the four of them.

“I’m sorry.” Hermione said quickly.

“Well, the office is shortstaffed right now.” Mr. Weasleys gaze zoomed towards Ron. “I was hoping to get some help, and it is a very quick and fast way to start a career at the Ministry.” He said. Ron was too busy with the paper to notice the job offer his father was making.

“Er, I’m not sure I want to join the Ministry right now” Harry said, his typical hand reaching to his unruly hair whenever he was uncomfortable

“Me neither.” Ron seconded. Hermione looked between all the men in the room. It was true, joining the Ministry wasn’t her priority and she still needed to take her NEWTs.

“I can help you, Mr. Weasley” she offered. “Give me a moment to change and I’ll go with you” she asked.

“You don’t have t–

“I want to. The devil often finds work for idle hands and there is only so much I can do at Hogwarts” she insisted.

“Thank you” he said. “What are your plans for the day, boys?” the emphasis on the last word was not lost on Hermione.

“I’ll be joining McGonagall in the search in a few hours,” Harry said. Ron, again, simply parroted what Harry said.

Hermione turned to go get dressed. Something smart, she thought to herself.

* * *

_July 6, 1998_

Severus had healed splendidly. So much in fact that his snark was back. What he did not expect was for her to have a dark sense of humor that complemented his. They usually got along great and both loved to banter with each other. She had been pleasantly surprised to get to know his laugh after a few snarky comments of her own.

“I cannot believe how they overprice these ingredients” he exclaimed once they got back to the house after going to Diagon Alley under a few charms to not be recognized.

“Polyjuice ingredients aren’t cheap” she said to him.

"I keep forgetting you have a Boomslang Snake that sheds whenever you need it to." she replied sarcastically to him.

"That is actually not a bad idea..." he smiled and gave a small laugh as well.

"Glad you are thinking outside of the box today. You do know how much or when they shed is very unpredictable?" she continued.

“If we just went to Hogwarts…” he tried once more.

“No. The wards would recognize you and I don’t remember the exact times I was there helping with the reparations.” Even under a disguise, it was not a good idea for her to see her past self.

Once Severus had recovered, they had started planning how to take out the runaway Death Eaters.

“I am certain MacNair is hiding in his estate in Ireland” he had said once he saw the missing person’s list yesterday. He had also tried to hide how uncomfortable it had made him to see his name printed. The only descriptive had been Death Eater. Hell, he had been Headmaster, Potions Master and Professor, either of those would have been fine.

“You’ve been there?” she asked him. He had only nodded as he continued down the list. Predictably, the Lestranges were not on it. Severus had a nifty spell that basically replaced a highlighter, he marked with purple those that he knew where they were and with blue those they had to seek out sources to find them directly on the newspaper. Hermione had been making a list of dead and missing. All of this automatically appeared on thacked to the growing wall they had been using to map out their plans. 

“Yes. A few times during the First Wizarding War.” He remembered. She was sitting besides him, she was in the final chapters of her book. She needed to know more about time travel and wizards only knew so much. Muggle scientifics had better concepts and theories.

“Dolohov is dead” Severus said as he read the obituary. Unconsciouly, Hermione’s free hand went to rub her scar on her chest. Nowadays it was mostly healed, a thin white-blue line. “He left a scar on you, didn’t he?” he said, he knew, he had been there in the Hogwarts Hospital wing when they all came back from the Department of Mysteries two years ago.

“It’s nothing.” She said. It was a long time ago for her, and she had another scar that was much more significant. The one on her arm. The one Severus still was unaware of. It didn’t matter, Bellatrix was dead. The only remaining Black were Andromeda and Teddy.

“Hermione, you should know it is not nothing” he told her. That grabbed her attention. He closed his eyes and braced himself to tell her. “Dumbledore has always liked to… downplay how dangerous things can be. Hagrid’s pets are not harmless. Devil’s Snare can constrict until it kills. Do not get me started on werewolves…” he sighed.

“It was a very joint effort between Madame Promfey’s medical and healing knowledge and my Dark Arts and Potions knowledge. Dolohov was- he was quite creative in his spells. It took us three hours to stabilize you and twelve hours for me to banish the curse within you. If he had been able to speak out loud the curse, you would have been dead. You were the one in most danger after that… Poppy wanted to send you to St. Mungo’s but Albus would not allow it” he said. He felt a weigh off his shoulders, a slight one at that. However, mentioning this made his frustration towards Dumbledore, even in death, go to the forefront of his mind.

Her wound seemed to react to the story, the itching escalating to a burning sensation.

“Madame Promfey…” she started to say.

“You have to understand why my help had to be kept in the shadows.” He asked. She simply nodded. “You almost died, and Dumbledore decided not to tell you.” She stared into him.

“Thank you for telling me this, Severus” she said.

“That is not your only near-death experience, is it?” he looked back at her. She drew a deep breath.

“The worst thing for me probably has been being tortured by Bellatrix. After I passed out in the Department of Mysteries, I do not remember much.” She admitted.

“Bellatrix? Jesus, Merlin, Fuck.” He said. “I heard that you three had been brought into Malfoy Manor by Greyback,” she shuddered at his name as well, “and then managed to escape.” He said.

“Yes, Greyback and his lot found us in the forest. We ran. I realized we would not be able to outrun them. So, I made Harry unrecognizable with a stinging hex. They still were suspicious and brought us to Malfoy Manor. That mad Lestrange woman went crazy when she saw we had the sword of Gryffindor. Sent the boys off to the dungeons and started questioning me.” She started to lift the sleeve of her cardigan to show him her scar. “She sent everyone to the cellar but made me stay behind. After I did not answer her questions, she started to carve this on my arm. I never told her anything” she said.

“She was very upset after that day, and _he_ was also very upset with her” Severus told her. She lowered her sleeve again.

“You don’t talk about this often, do you?” He asked. Her silence spoke for her.

“Have you tried something for the scars?” he asked. She nodded. But nothing worked.

“It’s a cursed blade, nothing helps” she admitted.

“You haven’t tried everything” he said. “May I see it one more time?" he asked gently. She carefully lifted the sleeve. 

"I’m going to need whole bubuters to make it, but I think it can be done” he said. His hand hesitated above her scar but did not touch her. He had never touched her. He wanted to, though. Her presence was great and comforting. Not as annoying as her teenaged self.

“I’ll give it a shot, but really, I’ve learned to live with it.” She said. He nodded and went back to the newspaper.

“I know where Joseph Jugson could be” he pointed at the paper.

* * *

_September 15, 1998_

“You forgot to mention this” Severus shoved the Daily Prophet in her face, she looked at the paper to see a picture of Ronald with Marie Smith, or at least that is the tagline said about the photo.

“Oh, was that today?” she asked, quite unpreocuppied. Severus took the chance to tease her a bit.

“You seem to have quite a disregard for your soon to be fiancée,” he said, he had never said much but the ring seemed significant. She had mentioned once or twice that she had a boyfriend with whom she lived with.

“Oh” she then realized that for the past four months she had been extra careful not to mention Viktor. “I’m engaged to Viktor.” She told him.

“Not Weasley?” he was pleasantly surprised. _Why had he assumed Weasley?_

“No, we did date for a few months, but it was terrible. We probably ended it way before he dated that woman, his girlfriends never last long, anyways.” She shrugged. “Did you ever have a woman in your life?” she asked back.

“Nothing worth mentioning.” He said. “I had a girlfriend when I was in Hogwarts, quite an ugly break up. And during the years between the fall and return of the Dark Lord I had a muggle girlfriend, or two. I have never been good for anyone, and that is okay with me.”

“So, you are content being the bat of the dungeons?” she asked.

“That has stuck, hasn’t it? And it is not even that original. I was called a bat since I was a first year with an overly large robe.” He said with a laugh. His laugh was deep and beautiful. She smiled at seeing him not take the name personally. Soon she started laughing soon.

She looked out the window. They were currently in the German countryside, the train would be taking them to Mannheim, and from there they would take a second train to Heidelberg. After tracking Macnair down, Severus had used Legilimens to get more information from him. She had been briefed later about two potential persons they should look into: Yaxley and Jugson.

“I miss him” she said to the window, thinking of Viktor. Severus thought it wise not to answer. Their silence was comfortable. He continued to read. She kept watching the passing scenery.

“Yaxley’s safehouse is supposed to be near here. He should be alone. He never married. No family.” He had informed her. Most of the missing Death Eaters were loners, with a few exceptions. They had a well laid out plan. It involved Polyjuice. Basically, they would pretend to be Harry and Ron determined to keep chasing Death Eaters. Little did Death Eaters know that Harry and Ron were too busy playing Quidditch to find rogue Death Eaters.

Yaxley was a very good duelist, so they had the element of surprise given how Harry and Ron were terrible duelists. Yaxley knew Severus’ style of dueling and Hermione had been getting practice from him. However, they did hope to avoid a duel at all.

They changed trains at the Mannheim stop. 

* * *

_September 15, 1998_

She had been dragged along to the match. It was the perfectly not too warm autumn Saturday evening to stay home with a book and a cup of tea. But no, she had to go with Harry to see Ron play. Something about being supportive had been Harry’s way of guilting her into it this time.

It had been a terrible idea.

“How do you spell that?” she asked. She had hidden her book in her bag, but that would be for later. Right now they were trying to reach their seats. Between being asked for autographs, something Hermione anxiously hoped would fade soon, and the size of the stadium, finding their seats was proving difficult. She had plastered a smile as two little girls had come up to her asking for autographs.

After a few minutes, Harry had boomed to everyone that they would not want to miss the match. That helped everybody to move along.

“I can’t wait until that stops happening.” She murmured carefully to Harry.

“I don’t like it either, but I’ve learned to deal with it. Sometimes not showering for a week keeps them away.” He shared, only mildly less irritated than her. They pushed themselves through the crowd to find their seats. Harry had asked for two seats on the Other Teams box. That basically means that other players from the League could come and see the match, whether it was for strategy or pleasure. There were only thirty seats, so they had to ask ahead of time. Harry had coordinated with some of his team members to meet him there. This is the second game of the season, and many players had switched between teams. Also, not many people would come yet.

Quickly, Hermione was introduced to everybody. Just as fast, she forgot most of the names. A much older man had approached Hermione and proceeded to talk about several of his matches in the past ten years, highlights of a career that Hermione had no clue about. She smiled nervously. Harry was engaged in conversation with some of the other players.

After a short while (though long enough to not be rude), she excused herself to go find a drink. There was a small bar with an elf tending it. The elf was standing on a stool to be at eye level with most of the patrons of the box. Hermione disliked the condition but right now wanted more something to have in her hand to avoid conversations. Especially if most of the attendants would be Quidditch players.

“Can I have a Martin-Donnellan, please?” she asked the elf courteously. The man she had seen just walking away had simply barked the brand of the beer he wanted and grabbed it roughly when the elf levitated it towards him.

The elf completed the procedure and levitated a mug full to the brim towards her without spilling a simple drop.

“Thank you.” She turned and maneuvered back to find a seat for her and Harry while the others were still standing. She took a corner seat in the second row. She would be able to see perfectly from here. She looked around carefully. No body was looking at her. And it was still ten minutes until the game started. She took out her book and started reading where she had left off when Harry arrived to drag her to the game.

It was as if she was tele transported to Middle Earth.

The sense of time left her.

“Care to join the game?” a deep voice interrupted her reading. Whoever was sitting besides her was not Harry. A bit embarrassed she looked up from the book.

“Um, I have been wai- Viktor!” she exclaimed. She smiled, pleased with the surprise.

“Hello, Hermione” he smiled. “Surprised to see you here, though the book seems quite right” he gestured towards the small paperback in her hands.

“Is it starting?” she asked and quickly disappeared the book.

“Well, it started twenty minutes ago, but you were quite absorbed.” He informed her.

“Oh, darn, I really hope Ron did not see me not see the beginning” she said.

“Is this your first time?” he asked.

“I’m sorry?” Hermione asked for clarification.

“We’re in the Other Teams box.” He said, as if that explained everything.

“I’m still lost” she looked back at him confused.

“There’s a privacy filter on this box. The players cannot see us. After all, the whole idea behind this box is to see the other teams. Strategy.”

“Right” she said.

“I’m guessing you’re here with Harry today?” he asked her. She only nodded.

“How come you are here?” She asked him. He smiled at that.

“I just signed on to play the Pride of Portree.” He told her in secret.

“Congratulations. But whatever happened with the Vrasta Vultures? I thought you were happy there?” she asked him.

“I was yes, but I thought it was time for a bit of change. So, I left the continent, am trying in bigger leagues now. I have continued to get offers, don’t seem so surprised.” He said.

“I’m sure you have had plenty of offers from Quidditch teams and otherwise.” She said. He rolled his eyes. 

"It is lovely to see you, too, Viktor. Thank you.” She admitted. She looked around, most people were glued to the game, and the box was not completely full. The two seats on the other side of him were empty. Harry was sitting with Wilda paying close attention to both teams.

“How have you been?” he asked. As the question left his lips, she noticed she had missed the intensity of him. The care and attention he gave to every word spoken between them. The other actions he did just with the same intensity and concentration as she had seen for the first time in the World Cup four years ago. This year there would have been a World Cup in New Zealand.

Her heart skipped a beat. Why had she not asked him how the World Cup had been when she saw him? And here he was asking about her.

Suddenly there was a general sigh from the others in the box and the stadium in general. This brought her back to the here and where of time instead of her conversation with Viktor.

“I’m –” she started to say. She wanted to say so much. She was not sure where to start. A quick glance around reminded her that they were somewhere rather public. She closed her eyes for a second to organize her thoughts before responding. “I’m fine, though I do have lots to tell you. Could we maybe talk somewhere else?” she asked him.

“I’m glad you asked.” He said and took her hand to guide her out.

“You know, I think now I know how you feel eveytime you enter a stadium.” She laughed. “Harry and I were quite accosted by people asking for our autographs at the entrance of the stadium.”

“Well, that usually happens when I leave the stadium. And look, not a soul looking for me now!” he said. The arm that he had free made a wide gesture around.

“I’m sorry, Viktor, I had no idea that leaving with me would be such a disappointment.” She said.

“That’s the Hermione I know” he said and laughed. His grip might have gotten just a bit tighter after that. She returned in kind. “This is better,” he said. She laughed.

“I’m glad to hear it. And I am also weirdly relieved to leave the game. You probably had other plans for tonight.” She asked him.

“Yes. I had a plan. Watch a boring Quidditch game between two nearly awful teams just to make sure I beat one of them next week. I have a better plan now” he said.

“Which is that?” she asked.

“Have dinner and catch up with the most gorgeous witch I know.” He smiled. She blushed. It could have been only a week ago the last they say each other. Time had really not passed between them. 

“I am not sure that’s enough time, I might talk until sunrise” she admitted.

“I want to hear all of it, love. Even the parts you don’t want to tell me.” He asked. There was something in his eyes that stood the test of time. That something remained exactly as if they had picked up from seeing each other yesterday instead of almost two years ago.

“Viktor, I have done things to survive. I want to tell you everything. I have had…”

“Shh” he said, pausing on his steps towards the Apparition point. He looked at her and closed the distance between them a little. She felt her body shifting gently towards him.

“Is this okay?” he asked her.

“I’ve missed you” she admitted.

He closed the distance between them and time stopped.

* * *

_November 16, 1998_

Hermione peered through the newspaper. It had been over a month since the last update to the missing and dead list had been done, and yet they printed it everyday. Since the first of October there had been no differences on the list. One of the last changes had been the resurgence of two muggleborn Hogwarts students that had been inside the Forbidden Forest. Apparently, they had hid inside a runaway car in the forest.

There was a picture of the two boys, what was possibly a yearbook picture from the year before, wearing Hogwarts robes and pointy hats and posing for the camera. One of them had managed to appear ejecting said hat from his head and out of frame.

“That car is a menace” Severus interrupted her thoughts; he had already gone through the paper before her. He had carefully peered while still standing at what page she was on. After he sat on her left side off breakfast table. His long legs had no issue with the tall stool and easily reached her floor. She, on the other hand, had one leg dangling and the second one folded beneath her butt. They were both in their sleeping attire. He wore a robe over his pajama pants, his chest bare and she had her skimpy shorts and a long-sleeved cotton blouse. No sleeping robe, but soon she would as the temperatures were starting to go down already.

“You’ve seen this car?” she exclaimed. “Fascinating, I heard that Mr. Weasley…

“I’ve been attacked by said car!” he exclaimed at the same time. “Makes the Whomping Willow seem like a Bowtruckle.” he remarked. “Wait, did you say Mr. Weasley? Senior? Or which one?”

“Um, what?” she feigned ignorance. “How did the car attack you?” she diverted his attention.

“Hagrid and I usually go into the forest when specific lunar phases are adequate for picking ingredients. Or sometimes I send him alone or I go alone. Once we were together and suddenly there were headlights and a car going at high speed towards us, hovering two feet above the ground. We both ran in different directions. I ended up levitating up a tree and sitting on a branch. Blasted car kept honking and trying to reach up the tree to where I was like a bloodhound. After a good twenty minutes, it grew tired and distractedly went after a few wondering giant fireflies."

Hermione laughed at the imagery of a car hounding on the professor.

“Well, that blasted car apparently protected these children. And they somehow survived eating in the forest” she said.

“Don’t sound so surprised, you survived eating in the forest as well. Eggs, mushrooms, wildberries, all sorts, right?” he asked. She nodded and focused her sight again on the paper. The three of them lost a lot of weight in those months.

“I’m sorry, that was a bit insensitive. You were going to say about Mr. Weasley?” he asked.

“From what Harry and Ron told me, that’s Mr. Weasley’s car that they crashed into the Whomping Willow our second year. Later that same year, Hagrid told them to follow the spiders. Aragog was going to let them be dinner for his family and they car showed up again and took them away, at least that’s how Harry tells it.” She said.

“They were in the Forbidden Forest by themselves?” he asked, “Why didn’t you stop them?” he asked.

“Believe me, I was mad after I learned about it. This was at the end of second year” she admitted, and then turned her face down.

Severus gave her a puzzled look. They had already talked about her Polyjuice incident, and how Poppy and himself had laughed after being impressed. He had at the time told her “Smart enough to brew Polyjuice Potion at age twelve yet not smart enough to differentiate between human and cat hair.” She had laughed as well. 

“The mandrakes weren’t ready yet,” she clarified.

“Oh” was his only response. He remained silent for a while, thinking about basilisks, roosters and ghosts. Then he turned to her, interrupting her reading, “What does it look like?” he asked.

“Even though I already knew, its one of the most scary things I have every seen. Bloodshot yellow eyes with black slits. After seeing them in the reflection, the next thing I remember is waking up in the Infirmary, there was no sense of time. Nothing. I could have stayed like that forever and have no clue about it.” She tried to explain the Petrification.

“Fascinating,” he said, and then placed his thumbs and index fingers against each other, the rest of his hand intertwined as he went back to thinking.

“It is not an experience, the creature is frightening, but the Petrification really was instantaneous” she shared. He did not respond.

“I wish I had my books with me” he said finally, after a while of thinking about it.

“I brought a newer and revised copy of Scamander’s book, if you want to go through it. There’s not much on Basilisks, but there is a large addition to Manticores, Dragons and Unicorns. Luna actually did a lot of work on this revised edition from 2007. Hang on, let me find it.” She placed her arm inside her tiny purple bag. She almost never left anything outside of it.

She thought of the book and thought of the Summoning Charm and the book was in her hand in a few moments.

“Here you go” she passed it on to him.

“I need to have full access to that mobile library of yours Hermione,” he stared at the small bag.

“And I should have brought more books” she countered. They both laughed. They had an odd fascination with books that was not common amongst most wizards.

Currently they had two ideas on who to focus on now. There had been few whispers about Lestrange. The name that had popped up twice during the previous interrogation of Macnair and Avery, in different instances was a relatively unknown Death Eater named Lewis.

Hollister Lewis was a Ministry worker in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. He had worked closely with Crouch for many years, but when Crouch went missing he declined the promotion and instead the position went to Lucas Weatherby. Lewis was not really on their radar. He was not listed as disappeared, missing, dead nor a Death Eater in any recent Daily Prophet publication. Given the office he worked with, it was highly probable that he had friends in the continent or even in any other part of the world where he could have emigrated to.

“I had no clue he was a Death Eater,” Severus admitted on the train ride back to England from Holland after killing Yaxley. They left Germany and their train connection was in Amsterdam. Severus found it odd until Hermione said they had enough time to go see the tulips fields in bloom. Witches and their flowers.

“I love tulips” she admitted, "Their scent is fresh, not too overpowering, and very lovely” Severus had admitted to liking their scent after walking a few streets. Hermione was positively thrilled with this non-strategic stop.

They stayed the whole day in Amsterdam back in June. Now, autumn was already here and they were close to traveling again, this time to New Zealand following the trail of Lewis.

* * *

_November 22, 1998_

Crookshanks had taken over her bed. He usually took over the bed while she showered. He probably was looking for the warmth leftover from her sleeping there. He purred at her and stretched leisurely when she passed from the bathroom and towards the small kitchen.

She poured some earl grey and opened the fridge to look for some yogurt and a wheat toast. She looked out the window of her fourth floor flat. It was a little cloudy outside, and the weather promised it would rain soon. She enjoyed the quiet of the morning. No Kreacher to mumble under his breath. No Ron looking over her shoulder to read the newspaper or take it from her. No Harry rushing from the gym and headed to train. Simply quiet.

She inhaled her tea softly. She was enjoying being alone. She missed the quiet, something that used to be quite common in her house growing up. The Burrow was always noisy and Grimmauld was always dark and glum, sometimes noisy.

After an awfully long conversation with Harry the Sunday after they had gone to see Ron play, game from which she disappeared. She had come back home the following day with a new perspective, Viktor had listened to everything, offering little advice and even fewer interruptions. She eventually got to asking him about the World Cup in New Zealand, from which the British and Irish teams were absent. Some people had the wrong misconception that there had been no World Cup, but that was false.

“I thought you had gotten bored and came home” Harry said, rushing to embrace her when she arrived back. She got home with a wide smile and was quite confused about his concern. Viktor and herself had really spent all night talking. He shared a bottle of whisky with her. A few times they laughed together sharing stories. At one point she cried telling him about how frustrating living in the tent was. They had lost track of time and she they had fallen asleep in his couch, cuddling.

“Where were you?” Harry asked concerned.

“Well, I didn’t want to interrupt you watching the game, and you were all focused. We got to talking and, well, I realized something I wanted to share I could not just say in public. Viktor and I went for a bite and a drink and then we did some catching up.”

“Which Viktor?” Harry asked.

“M– ” Hermione stopped herself from saying my Viktor, because that for some reason came naturally to her. “Viktor Krum. He arrived just on time to the game to watch the two teams play. He just signed with Pride of Portree and he sat beside me and we started talking and…” she trailed off.

“You like him!” Harry said.

“Well off course, we did date a while back” she replied amused by his exclamation.

“He took you to the Yule Ball, yeah, but it’s not like Ginny and I dated.” He said. She was tempted to correct him. She never told anyone at school that she had accepted his invitation to spend summer in Bulgaria. She had never told anyone that the following summer after corresponding all year he joined her for a few weeks before she joined them at Grimmauld place. She opened her mouth to reply to him but hesitated.

“So, then you are dating?” she deviated the conversation instead. She heard the floo come to life behind her. The aforementioned Ginny and her brother came through the fire.

“You found her!” Ron exclaimed. He hugged her intensely. Hermione barely reciprocated the gesture. One of the things they had talked about last night was her rather short relationship with Ron. Even though she let him fuck her a few times after that first one, it was always forced and once she had been able to stop, she had no intention of touching him. She wondered if the few women he had dated since had had similar issues. She would love to say he was simply a selfish lover, but she thought it was a bit more about overpowering and dubious consent. She disentangled herself from him and Ginny then hugged her, too.

“We were worried sick! Where were you?” Ginny asked.

“I, um, I got invited to dinner and I had a great time.” She admitted. Harry was fucking Ginny. Ron was fucking a lot of things. Ginny was fucking Harry. She really did not mind if she simply had had a night to herself, or they thought as much.

“Oh, do tell” Ginny asked.

“Viktor Krum” Harry took his chance to interrupt, the thought clicking in his head. 

“You went out with Viktor Krum and got back now?!” Ginny exclaimed.

“Yes, I went out with Viktor.” She said. “He’s playing for the Pride of Portree this season” she told them.

“Why?” Ron interrupted. “You’re dating me. Does he think you’re still interested since Fourth Year?” Ron commented.

“No, Ron. You and me are **not** dating, as I have tried to say several times. Neither are Viktor and I, we just talked like old friends.” She told him.

Despite her telling him over and over again, and her locking herself in her room so that he would not come in the middle of the night, sober or drunk, with a single selfish idea in his head. Turns out it did not get better with time. He always pushed right into her. She tried talking to him, but his humongous head did not seem to understand. Eventually, he started bringing some women and probably had sex, but nothing really deterred him from thinking she was still with him.

“I bet he is not a good a shag as I am, right?” Ron said, his ego close to bursting. Hermione just stared wide-eyed at him.

“I see no need to answer that, Ronald” she said as coldly as she could. Harry and Ginny were also still in front of the fireplace.

“I really do not want to know anything about anybody in this room shagging, especially since I am your sister.” Ginny contributed. “Hermione, I, for one, am glad to hear you had a good time.”

That day, probably in part jealous of Viktor having his own place, she had decided she wanted a place for herself as well. It had only taken her two months to find a place and procure three rents plus a safety deposit. This had included visiting Gringotts. She had gone hoping to give them an apology and then asking for a loan.

She knew she wanted something close to the Ministry so she could avoid magical means of travel to get to work. She disliked the soot from the Floo. Apparition was okay but entering the Ministry through Apparitions is a nightmare. There are at least two or three Mediwizards close by for the common accident of two people apparating at the same place at the same time… It’s called transplant and their organs or limbs sometimes move between two persons. A toe was a simple fix, but it your spleen decided to hop into the body that apparated at the same time as yours, both persons would miss at least the whole workday at St. Mungo’s getting realigned.

She had a few savings; she had been quite thorough about nobody questioning her parents absence amongst their friends and colleagues. She would have preferred to apply Memory Charms to everyone. But it was too difficult. She planted the compulsion in her parents’ brain to tell anyone they greeted that they would be relocating to Canada for two weeks while she figured out how to perform the Memory Charm perfectly. Their practice had been closed and most of their savings they took with them to Australia. She had kept around some money that would hold her off until the was able to get a job.

Now, she had a job, but her savings were not enough to make the full deposit for renting. She had no idea of the currency rate between galleons and sterling. She was, after all, looking for a flat in a Muggle neighborhood. She had avoided it, but she had to go to Gringotts. She was not even sure if she would be welcome there. She needed a loan.

Her plan did not go as intended. The elves were actually, despite their “we do not interfere in human affairs” policy, grateful they had removed a Horcrux from their lands.

“Nasty bit of magic. We store treasure, not souls” Chief Ónar had said to her. Damages had not been so bad, “And since Mr. Potter already reached his majority, he has already been granted access to the Potter and Black family vaults. Whatever small amount was needed for reparations it was taken from these.” He had told her. She had merely nodded, unaware that Harry had done that. Then again, there were many things before and during the last few years that she omitted telling him as well.

“How well do you know you Arithmancy and Ancient Runes?” he asked her. She was puzzled.

“I received a reference letter from one Professor Vector, and Mrs. De la Cour also spoke very highly of you. Very cunning. Good with strategy. And your professor wrote on her letter: creative problem-solver.” Hermione had taken her NEWTs in early September, alone in the offices of the Division of Magical Education, in a very hidden Department on the fourth floor of the Ministry.

Once she started working with Arthur, two weeks later Minerva had asked her about her education. She had recruited Professor Sprout and Professor Vector to tutor her in all the areas she might need help with to ace her tests. She spend most of her free time at Hogwarts, but not doing reparations but rather in private sessions with different Professors. She took NEWTs in everything except Divination and Muggle Studies. Her results were still pending.

“Well, my NEWT results are still pending, however Arithmancy has been one of my favorite classes at Hogwarts. I have always performed well in Ancient Runes.” She said, not really understanding where this conversation was going.

Chief Ónar laughed when she was so modest about her schooling. “More than one person refers to you as the most brilliant witch they ever met. I dare say you will get perfect Os in all your NEWTS. Ms. Granger, I can perfectly well let you have your loan. However, what I am offering you is a job.” He clarified.

“Really? A job in what?” she asked. She knew that Bill worked as a Curse Breaker for Gringotts and that Fleur worked as a Translator, knowing Gobbledegook, French, Swedish and English. Chief Ónar smiled showing a lot of his pointy teeth.

“I need a creative problem solver to help with human and goblin relations. The specifics of generating contracts between the interested parties. Making us money. Relations also between humans with humans and goblins with goblins. I believe we could use an outside neutral person to help between some, ah, family issues.” He said.

“I don’t know any Gobbledegook.” She informed him.

“You will learn it soon, Ms. Granger. Are you interested?” he offered.

“Yes.” For once, she did not hesitate in making a quick decision.

“Good. We pay better than the Ministry, also” he told her. A thick parchment materialized in his hand. He passed it over to her. “Take this and read it. Let me know if there is something you would like to change. Come back tomorrow and we will talk more.” She unrolled the parchment to see a contract. She smiled again. She tried to skim through the conditions.

“I will see you tomorrow, then.”

She took the last sip of tea and centered her mind back in the present. Today she had a busy day. There were two meeting between some medium-sized vault owners and their goblin representatives. After that she had a long distance call to Geneva. It had been a pleasant surprise to her employers that she spoke perfect French. After that she would break for lunch and then go to Gobbledegook classes with two other new Gringotts employees.

By the time she got home that night, she would be tired enough to only make dinner and then read a chapter of the book she was currently reading about trickle economics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.


	7. The Least Popular Witch in Europe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whenever we build models that explain the existence and nature of the events, it is of extreme importance to have such an ordering of events; it allows us to explain them sequentially: one event can be the cause of a subsequent event if its time variable is lower, or it could be the consequence of an event if its time coordinate is higher. 
> 
> – Gerard’t Hooft Theoretical Physics for Utrecht University

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Plot bunny ran away from me and i was to busy to catch it. Got it back now. 
> 
> Warning: Another big plot twist.

**Chapter 7 – The least popular witch in Europe**

December 2, 1998

Hermione had insisted on Christmas decorations all around the house. She had gone to the attic and produced two boxes that she distributed around the house. That was why there was now a reindeer on their case wall.

The reindeer apparently moved its ass every time Severus came close to it.

The first time, the bloody thing nearly gave him a heart attack. The second time, he jumped slightly; though enough to make Hermione watching from the breakfast table laugh. The third time the animation caught on fire.

“I’ve had that since I was a kid!” Hermione pouted.

“Aguamenti” Severus bothered to say the word to appease her that the wretched decoration would survive, or at least that their notes would not be damaged. Finding Lewis had been helpful. Since he had no previous close contact with Severus, and the newspapers had already changed his status from missing to dead, he did not expect them to ambush him leaving him home to go play a bit of golf.

Lewis had been quite weak, Hermione had assessed. He lived a very laid back life in New Zealand, with a wife and a kid. His wife was also British. Severus had broken into his mind, obtained information on how he had been more a social climber, using the influence of Voldemort to allow him a stable position but had somehow only killed twice for Voldemort. Both for show. The first at his initiation, the second to prove his loyalty to Lestrange. They had been close. That had been useful.

Lestrange is of French descent and had two unoccupied mansions in two different provinces in France, as well as a villa in Martinique. From their own investigation the they knew he had several family members spread between Loira, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and Paris, ranging from aunts to five times removed cousins. The wizarding world is not as little as Great Britain made it seem. Nor as endogamous.

They had plans to leave for Martinique in the next few days, once their new batch of Polyjuice Potion and Veritaserum were done. Hermione had insisted on Veritaserum before their first mission.

“I am not as skilled as you are with Legilimency, we need a plan b in case you are incapacitated.” She had said and Severus readily agreed. He also did not want her to have to look into the very twisted minds of Death Eaters. Especially ones like Dolohov and Lestrange.

He had agreed that for the Mind Arts, theoretical knowledge was not enough. He used to practice with his mother before coming to Hogwarts, wands were not necessary for that. He tried to explain to her that it was quite difficult to read a person’s mind, and even more to do so without the person being aware of it. Dumbledore had been a great Legilimens.

“I learned since I was very young, and it has taken me decades to master it completely, probably fast-tracked by playing a spy” he told her. “You, on the other hand, have probably never ventured into somebody else’s mind have you?” he said to her.

“Once or twice” she said evasively. “Not with intent to gather information, though.” She admitted.

“And that is what you have to practice. What have you done before?” he asked. She froze where she was chopping dungbeetles. Her face got red. Getting no response, he turned to her. He saw she was quite still and some of her color had drained, making her few freckles noticeable.

“Well?” he asked again, differing attention from his ingredients.

“Um, well, it’s not precisely…” she

“Cat got your tongue, Hermione? Considering all the things we have talked about I don’t think that this question would be the one to leave you speechless” he urged her to talk. She shook her head and took a calming breath before answering him.

“The first time I made the jump from theory to practice of mind arts I removed myself from the life of my parents. First I performed Legilimens to see how deep I needed to go, since they were Muggles, it was easier to go deep inside their minds. Once I found all that I was looking for I performed Obliviate… for a very long time. I did each of them separately, one at their clinic and the other at home. I did this before my fifth year. I used some books from Hogwarts and some from family libraries to be sure of what I needed to do.” She shared. “Curiously, during Hogwarts my last two years, nobody asked me about them.”

“I’m sorry. You did this for their safety, then?” he asked. She just nodded. “Did you try to reverse it?” She shook her head.

“I never considered the possibility. I took away all risk from them. I have no idea if the memories I removed are somehow still stored or I can pass to them my memories of them. I went to check up on them and they were doing great in Australia. Seemed pointless to bring them back to rainy Britain.” She said. After she finished talking, Severus had come closer to her, he carefully removed the tear tracks and then surrounded her with his arms. She grabbed on to him and cried.

After a little while she collected herself.

She looked into his deep, dark almost black eyes and saw comprehension, not judgement. His arms passed to her shoulders, going back to an adequate distance between them. Hermione appreciated his words, his questions were inquisitive but not demeaning. During their conversations they were equals. Friends.

But it seemed this was about to change.

He reciprocated the intensity of her gaze. He looked down at her. He held her at his arms distance, finally touching her after months of thinking of breaching that unwritten boundary. His hand softly touched her chin, then her cheek. He shortened the distance between them a little, asking for permission. She did not pull away.

He kissed her.

She enthusiastically, and probably already emotional from telling her parents story sought out his lips and passionately grabbed on to him. His lips left hers and moved to her neck, and she did the same thing and trailed her tongue to his ear. They held each other close.

Time was going fast. A minute in his arms seemed too short.

* * *

March 12, 1999

Dear Hermione,

As always, receiving a letter from you in the highlight of my week. I had quite a nasty fall during training today, nothing that the Mediwitches could not handle, though. However, and I hate this, they are supposed to be professional, one of them tried to … I am sorry, just thinking of this makes me angry. She absolutely groped me and then tried to give me her number. Bloody nuisance.

You must have had a busy week as well from work and your classes. I think I remember I had a phase when I was seven that I wanted to learn as many languages as possible and work as a diplomat, like my Grandfather. Well, so far I have learned about (or almost) four languages, but not the Goblin Language. And even if not a diplomat, I get to travel to fly.

I hope to see you soon,

V

Hermione rolled up the parchment again and smiled. The letter, short this time around, was from this Tuesday. The first time she read it, she felt blood rush to her cheeks as she thought of when she went to Bulgaria and saw pictures of Viktor as a child. She had been enjoying going back to their correspondence. They had really gotten to know each other a lot from the sometimes short and sometimes long missives, they had discontinued them somewhere around her sixth year, when what she wanted to say in her letters was too dangerous. 

Now, their words flowed more freely. They had seen each other maybe twice since their reunion in September, first he had a lot of matches and in Christmas and January he had taken the off time to go see his family. She also had compromises with the Weasleys and Harry. Not living in Grimmauld actually lifted her spirits a bit and now she was completely convinced that the house itself absorbed happiness. She mentioned it to Harry, but it was the only thing he had to remind him of Sirius, and as the heir to him, he wanted to live in the house.

If all went well, they had next weekend all to themselves. So far there had been no urgent memos from work, Minerva had not called needing help and Harry was out for the weekend with the Quidditch team on a retreat. This weekend had no games.

They had dinner plans for today, a small place close to her flat in Muggle London that seemed just a little fancy, good for a nice bottle of wine probably. There was a second plan that included something closer to his place on Saturday, but it was unspecific. She told him: “whatever you want,” and he took it from there.

She had indulged in buying a new dress for the occasion as well. It was a flowery thing that reached just above her knees, great for the spring weather.

Crookshanks purred and came close to her.

“You’ll take good care of yourself this weekend, Crooks?” she asked, and the half Kneazle simply stared at her. “That’s what I thought” she smiled.

Her apartment was still sparsely furnished, all that needed for the kitchen, she missed cooking after having to scrape the last year on the run. And cooking was a skill that ran in her family. It made her melancholic. And allowed her to remember them. Considering how she took their memories… she did not want to forget them.

Actually, she had all her pictures of them in the kitchen wall. It seemed the best place, the rest of the house was rather empty of pictures. The only other picture in the house was one of Harry, Ron and herself at the beginning of fourth year. 

She took the time to shower thoroughly, washing her hair and exfoliating her skin. Then using scented cream on all of her body instead of her regular cream.

She attempted to fix her hair but instead settled to just wear it down. The dress she had bought had long sleeves but a slight hem that left both her shoulders bare the scar from the Department of Mysteries peeked a bit, nothing a glamour and some makeup could not fix. Then she thought at the possibility of taking her clothes off in front of him. She wanted to. However, what would he think of her scars? She made a quick consideration, maybe not take off any clothes. Did she want that? Does she want to hide her scars from Victor? _No, I do not_.

She was standing in front of her vanity, the minimum makeup she had on: mascara and light pink lipstick. She had finished quite a while ago. She lost track of time thinking about her scar.

The doorbell rang. She took a quick decision and bandaged her arm under the soft rayon of her sleeve. That one was harder to explain. She quickly put on her new heels that matched her dress. Red strappy sandals heels. There was a bit of red on her dress. The brand was known for its colorful and asymmetric designs: the left had purple flowers like lilies and the right side had red pansies on the left hand of the dress a large embroidered yellow sunflower. She opened the door to see that he had also dressed up for the occasion. He looked quite sexy yet also laid back with a deep ocean blue button up nice yet not formal.

“Hi!” she smiled gleefully, while seeing him at her doorstep.

“Hi” he replied, “You look amazing as always”

“You look very handsome as well,” she replied. He leaned in and kissed her cheek and she replied in kind. He did not release her hand afterwards

“I do believe you know where we're going for the first part of the night.” He said just above a whisper.

“Oh yes” she replied and closed her door after storing her keys. She led him down the stairs and over 2 avenues to the Spanish restaurant she had found.

“Oh, I should've asked you this sooner! Do you like seafood?” she asked. He nodded slowly.

“I don't have it often, but I like fish. Since France I've only had it once. I don't like oysters though.”

“They have variety here,” he opened the door for her and the maitre-d' at the entrance show them to a candle-lit table for two. The rooms lighting was warm though not too dark.

“And have you had Spanish before?” she asked as he pulled out of her chair for her. At this he smirked at her.

“Only in Spain” she laughed and he followed.

“Then you're familiar with tapas?” she asked.

“Yes,” he smiled “I am very fond of Spanish goat cheese as well,” he told her. A waiter arrived.

“Good evening, here's the menu for both of you today. The recommendation from the chef is Jamón bellota, We have tapa with truffled honey with cheese and another tapa with fried octopus bits.” He passed another menu to Viktor “If I can interest you in wine there are several options as well,” he said.

“Thank you” she replied to him with a winning smile.

“Take your time,” he said and left again.

“You said we could have a nice wine here he said passing the wine menu to her.”

“Honestly, I had not come here before. I mean, for the past two months I've walked by and I've been curious. It sounded like a nice place to come.”

“I like it so far” Viktor said, “and especially given the company”

“How are you? How have you been enjoying the English League?” she asked him. He gave her a half smile.

“I like it all right, my team is great. There is good comradery. I like that it is a mixed team like the Vrastas. I don't understand how the Holyhead Harpies or other teams in the League are exclusively male or female.”

“I believe Ginny mentioned it's tradition in the Harpies, and she's also going to go to tryouts next season”

“Is she good?” he asked and her shoulders moved upwards in a shrug.

“No clue!” she admitted. His laughter bounced on the walls and was music to her ears.

They enjoyed a light meal and shared a whole bottle of wine between themselves. After eating they walked a bit, with no specific heading, and talking while hand in hand. There was a lot of laughing and smiling.

He invited her to his place and as soon as she nodded her head, he apparated them home.

He had enveloped her in his arms for the apparition. In a blink they appeared inside his kitchen, his arms remained around her. They had been comfortable grazing each other’s arms, hands, waist during the evening. He barely hesitated to kiss her while she was in his hold.

“You terribly busy woman have had me crazy in the past few months” he said in between small open mouthed kisses to her full lips.

“You have also been busy, I am not taking all the bl- Oh” she paused her retort when his lips wrapped around her earlobe, careful to leave her earring in place. Her arms tried to reach around his neck, but there was slight height difference. He lifted her off the ground and sat her on the kitchen counter, both of their necks had a better position after that.

He stood in front of her, her legs slowly opened to allow him to stand between them. Her hand went down from his neck to his sides, slowly circulating his back to reach the skin underneath his shirt. It was his turn to moan when he felt her fingertip warm against his skin. She smiled as the success and grabbed his sides to bring him closer to her.

“Babe,” he said above a whisper, his arms wrapping her chest and his forehead resting against hers.

“Honey” she replied, she resisted the urge to wiggle to get closer to him. Instead, she decided to be blunt about where this was heading. “Do you have a condom?” she asked.

“Da” he replied in Bulgarian. “Give me a moment” he left her sitting on the kitchen counter and went to his bathroom. She felt warmth all over her face and assumed her hair was messier than it usually was.

She considered jumping down from the counter, but instead focused on taking her heels off.

He found her with her legs folded and taking off her right heel.

“You look very sexy, love” he said and invited himself as close to her as he could. Her arms surrounded his frame once more, and his hands reached her face before finishing to close the distance between them. She allowed him to kiss her a moment but then bit his lower lip carefully, pulling him towards her. His arms went up and down her arms, still on top of her dress and her bandage. He said nothing and then caressed her legs, her thighs. Unconsciously, she spread her legs for him.

It had been a while since she was kissed like this. She allowed a sigh of pleasure leave her, and he replied in kind.

His hands shifted underneath her dress and pushed it upwards, her cheeks rested against the cold marble. She shivered. He touched her pussy above her thong and noticed how wet she was.

“You’re wet” he stated the obvious. She whimpered in response at the loss of contact from him. She nodded softly and started to unbutton his shirt. She would have preferred to rip it off, but instead took her time. It had been a very long time since they had both been together.

His hands got busy removing her panties. A small, black piece of fabric emerged from between her legs and dress. He let it drop to the floor at almost the same time as she pushed his shirt back. Her lips searched for his nipples and licked them. He groaned.

“Yes” she changed positions to whisper in his ear. He pulled her legs closer to him. Her hands got busy removing his pants, dark jeans that wrapped around his hips and ass for a very nice view. She unzipped him and quickly pushed them down, at the same time as his briefs. She was rewarded with the nice sight of his wang standing large and proud. She reached to stroke it and he whimpered, leaning his head on her shoulder for a moment. He twisted his head and softly kissed her neck. She wriggled forwards on the counter.

“Wait” he said gruffly. He pulled away. She shivered from losing his warmth. He finished taking his clothes off, she was still mostly clothed. She gave him a rogue smile.

“Take it off” he asked. She did not need to be told twice and quickly grabbed the hem of the dress and pulled it over her head. She placed her left hand on her right bra strap, and then lowered her fingers along the strap just a little bit.

“Do you want me to take this off, too?” she said just above a whisper. He nodded once, keeping his distance and staring at her with enough heat to keep her melting. She unhooked the bra and let it fall forward. He came close again and went directly to place his lips on her left nipple. She barely had enough time to place her arms behind herself before she arched into his mouth. His free hand flicked her other nipple and it got hard, well, harder, in less than a second.

Taking advantage of once again having him close to her, she shifted her weight to free one hand and grab his wang again. His penus was deliciously hard as well. Rock hard. She took the condom that he had placed on the counter a few minutes, _or was it more?_ , her thoughts interrupted. In a few seconds placed it on him and wriggled even further forward on the counter, letting him play with her boobs and at the same time trying to get closer to him.

She felt the heat coming from him before he felt his hardness at her entrance. She felt him shiver against her and changed positions, instead of leaning back she took her arm to his shoulder, leaned on him, and pushed her pelvis. There was still some small part of her poised on the counter, but he was taking almost all of her weight.

“Ugh” she moaned when he penetrated her. She felt him take a deep breath in as well. She finished climbing on top of him, to fit his entire length. He pushed his pelvis forward once and then sat her on the counter again. The heights were perfect with her sitting and him between her legs. She hugged his neck with her arms and he grabbed her hips. She kissed him sloppily and once more pushed her pelvis into him. He released one of her hips to stabilize both. He grunted and pulled her hips back, for her to let him set the pace. He pushed back.

“Hmgh” a sound from deep in his throat was muffled. She looked into his eyes and they kissed again.

“Vikto- ah!” she started to say but he interrupted her with another push of his pelvis and pulling her towards him at the same time. She wrapped her legs around his and let her butt slide on the counter that she had gotten all wet. He grunted again and moved her to match the rhythm he wanted. It started deep and slow, and it was making her lightheaded. After some time, he started going faster but just as deep. She moaned at a particularly deep movement that she felt against her cervix. This gave him incentive to pause and try to go as deep as possible again and was rewarded with a small scream leaving her.

“Yes” he hissed and then kissed and bit her neck. Motivated by the sounds she was making he started pounding into her. She grabbed onto him, the movements too fast to grab onto anything else. She clenched her legs around his waist and butt and her hands and fingers against his shoulders. She felt she was close to orgasming. She bit her lip in order to not scream out.

He did scream.

“Damn, Hermioneee” he said as he felt her pussy also clench around his dick, contracting into him, almost milking him. He looked straight at her eyes. Despite her just coming, he could not stop. He rode our her orgasm and was soon after orgasming as well.

They took deep breaths and clung to each other. He moved an errant strand of hair behind her ear. She removed a drop of sweat from his brow. He placed a kiss to her earlobe. She placed her head against his chest to feel and hear his palpitations. He took a slight step back and removed himself from inside her and vanished the condom and the mess. She sighed in pleasure.

“That was even better than I remembered it” she admitted. He laughed, and she heard the laugh as it resonated inside his chest.

“Hmm” was his only answer as his arms went to grab her arse to lift her. “I want to take you to bed and eat that pussy.” He said to her.

She squeaked as he pulled her closer. His strong arms had no trouble managing her weight.

He walked swiftly to the bedroom and placed her gently on his bed. He then kissed her lips thoroughly and she wrapped her arms around him: not wanting it to end. He swiftly removed her hands and placed them above her head, one of his hands holding both her hands there. First, he licked and kissed towards her earlobe, which made her squirm and laugh at different sensitive spots. Then, he moved down and kissed and licked the nipple on the same side. He dedicated some time to the nipple and enjoyed how she arched her back to let him fondle her breast and nipple. Then he made a downward curve towards her quim.

It was still wet and waiting for him,

* * *

March 16, 1999

She stretched lazily before getting out of bed. She should have asked for the day off yesterday and prolong their weekend together.

Then again, he had had to work as well yesterday. Their weekend had been beautiful, and probably neither one had wanted for their time naked in his bed to end.

She sighed as she remembered his strong arms as he took all her body to bounce on his dick while they were both standing. A position that worked well for both of them.

Crookshanks purred from the foot of the bed.

“I know, I know, I’m about to get up,” she replied.

She quickly showered and dressed. While preparing breakfast an owl arrived with the Prophet.

The main story was enough to make Hermione lose her appetite.

“Rita Skeeter announces new book about Severus Snape, coming next month!” She felt a wave of anger followed by nausea pass through her. That peroxide blonde woman just had to look for dirt on anything and anyone. She was sure that said book would not paint Professor Snape in a good light, despite what both Harry, Shacklebolt and herself had said regarding him.

“Oh, bugger, Harry” she thought. She quickly grabbed her coffee cup and toast and went to the door of her apartment. She had anti apparition wards in place, that ended just after the door. She quickly apparated to Grimmauld with her breakfast in hand and called out to Harry.

“Harry!” she said, as she made her way to the kitchen, hoping to find everybody in there.

“Hermione?” she heard an answer from somewhere inside the house. She arrived at the kitchen, but Harry was not there.

“You cheater!” Ron welcomed her into the kitchen, loudly and scraping his chair back.

“Hello Ronald” she said. Ignoring his comment. She propped her black coffee on the kitchen counter and did not dare take a seat until someone else arrived in the kitchen.

“Hermione?” Harry asked as he arrived at the kitchen as well. “This is a surprise” he said, looking at the uncomfortable scenario between Ron and Hermione.

“Yes. I saw the Prophet and came here straight away. Did you see it yet?” she asked him, completely ignoring Ron.

“See you making goo goo eyes to Viktor Krum?” Ron spat acidly. Hermione was taken aback.

“What? I came here because the front of the Prophet was about Skeeter publishing a book on Professor Snape” she said.

“What?” Harry interrupted.

“Look!” Ron exclaimed and pushed the Prophet in her face. There was, in fact, a moving photo of her and Viktor… from sometime Saturday when they had been walking around Portree, he was showing her the Quidditch Stadium, and it was quite obvious she reached to pat is arm.

“Yes?” she managed to indignantly pose the question to Ron.

“You whore!” he exclaimed. She blinked once at him. She looked at Harry, trying to get some help.

“Skeeter is writing a book in Snape? She is going to tear him apart,” his right hand reached to mess up his hair. “Can we stop her?” he asked.

“Well, I think I can still blackmail her, she has still not registered as an Animagus,” was her first option.

“You think you’re just going to ignore me, bitch?!” Ron came closer to her again. Her wand appeared on her lowered hand and quickly gagged and pushed Ron back.

“Do **not** come near me” she snapped. “I heard you alright, I think you said: cheater, whore and bitch.” She calmly said to him. “I heard you”

“Harry, don’t worry, I will come back after work and see what we can do about Skeeter” she said. She finished her coffee in a large gulp and vanished the cup back to her flat.

“Talk some sense into him after I leave” she said and left to go to work.

She closed the door behind her as she left. She tried to contain the resentment and anger towards Ron yet allowed herself a single muffled scream against her palm. She took a few calming breaths. She composed herself again and apparated to Gringotts.

She purposely walked to her office and desk to make sure no other bothered her while she settled in.

He was probably still at home. It was quite early. She thought for a moment,

“I definitively need to get a cell phone” she told herself. For the time being, she did have a phoneline at the office, supposedly for business only, considering there were also muggle clients as well. She got her phonebook out and called him.

It rang once and Hermione waited.

It rang twice and she considered how maybe it would be better to have this conversation in person.

It rang twice and she almost hung up.

“Da?” she heard his deep voice on the other side of the phone.

“Viktor?” she asked.

“Hermione?” he asked back.

“It’s me” she confirmed.

“You saw the photo?” they kept questioning each other.

“Yes,” she finally admitted. He spoke something she did not understand but was quite sure it was a mix of swear words in Bulgarian and Romanian.

“Well, I am not exactly thrilled about it either!” she finally managed to interrupt his litany of, for her, incomprehensible words. “We both like our privacy” she mumbled, and for a moment slouched over the phone, not knowing how to not show her frustration. This was not the first time her love life made the tabloids. Nor his. But their time together before had been discreet. Off the radar.

“Damn it, we should have been more careful. We should have kept to muggle places. I do not want you to become the least popular witch in Europe, you know, having me all to yourself and all” he said, finally reverting to English. She only knew a few stray words in Bulgarian, and realized she had to retake her Rosetta Stone classes.

“The least popular witch in Europe? ” she admonished. “I’d say you’re being cocky, but I know that you would take that as a compliment” she said.

“Da, love” he agreed. “Be careful of the fangirls, is all I’m saying”

“I already have to be careful with Ron. Bastard” she said under her breath.

“What did he do?” he asked.

“Nothing I can’t handle, Viktor. I also saw the announcement about Rita Skeeter’s book and Harry, Ron and I will try to decide how to handle and avoid said book tonight. He basically called a cheater, whore and bitch this morning.”

“I’ll rip him apart.”

“Harry will kill you if you do that”

“I’ll punch him.”

“Better. But let me handle it. Don’t fret. I’ll call you tonight, from home?” she said.

“Please. Do you filter your mail?” he asked, concerned.

“Off course, you have no idea how many wards and protections I have on my flat. This is not the first time I am on the tabloids, regrettably. Though never because of being seen with such an international celebrity such as yourself, I’m just a national hero” she smiled.

“Good. I hate the publicity too. This type of publicity.” Viktor growled.

“People should mind their own business. Even if it is a nice picture. I don’t know if they were following you or me” she said.

“I’m sorry, Hermione” he said.

“It’s not your fault” She replied. She can hear him taking deep breaths and trying to control his anger on the other side of the phone. Se wished she could reach over to him and hug him. She also closed her eyes in frustration. “I spent a great time last weekend, Viktor” she managed to say after trying to cool a bit.

“Does that mean we can do it again?” she can hear his smile in his voice.

“Certainly, and again and again, I hope” she said, trying not to blush, happy she was alone.

“I’ll hold you to that, woman” he said possessively.

“I will” she agreed. “I have to start working” she explained once everything was settled.

“Will I see you this Thursday as planned?” he asked,

“Yes, this changes nothing. Take care, honey” she told him.

“You too, babe”

* * *

March 16, 1999

She wasn’t really asleep, but she heard him move out of bed and presumably go pee, she did not even open her eyes. He would come back to bed soon enough, and it would take a minute for her to miss the lack of warmth from lying next to him. Then she felt him hovering above her and lazily opened just one eye.

“Wake up,” he says, she glances at him, his pants are already off and he is pulling off hers, a hand feeling her waist, her cold skin and his warm hand, he lowers his lips to hers, kissing briefly before covering all of her, the hand that had been on her waist goes lower, and a first brush against her sex releases a heavy moan into his head, close to his ear. She smiles into the kiss, and soon her pants are gone too.

This time he claims the top, she reaches to his penus, not yet as hard as she knows it can get. She returns the attention he is giving her sex. He kisses her again, and with his free hand reaches to her breast, nipple already hard and ready for attention.

He says something into her ear but she is groggy, and other senses are dominating. He spreads her legs easily, one knee bent and crushing her breast, almost touching the tip of her nose, the other spread to the side. Her right hand is stroking his penus, keeping rhythm to how he is stroking her clit, and her left hand clutches his dark hair and his neck. She sighs unable to avoid the small moans that the pleasure produces in her. She kisses, licks and tenderly bites his earlobe.

Her name crosses his lips, something in between a cry for help and a moan, that electrifies her and she feels goosebumps on her uncovered skin, her free leg folds into one of his on top of her, he searches for her lips again. Their tongues meet and swirl, a lazy dance, he pulls on her upper lip and then pulls away.

“Fuck me” she breathily requests, he was already placing on a condom. He enters slowly, tentatively and sweetly, as if they had not just done this before falling asleep last night. A slow delicious stretch demands a deeper moan which he replies with one of his own. He squeezes his eyes shut, and she lazily arches into him. Perfect fit.

He slowly pumps into her as she finishes to wake up. She closes her eyes but her hands reach his long hair.

“Do we have to go to France today?” she said. The sex was soft and slow. He considered her question and the rhythm went a little more slower.

“I guess we could go tomorrow,” he said, his deep baritone music to her ears. “I do recall you purchasing Muggle means of transportation, and booking a hotel for tonight.” He told her, after he finished talking he pushed deep into her, opening both her legs wide, one to the side and the other into her chest.

“Ugh” she grunted from the deep penetration. “I know. We’ll start getting ready just as soon as we are done here. Take your time, though, Severus” she smiled at him. By now, her eyes were wide open and her pelvis was pushing upwards to meet his dick whenever he pulled back.

It would be unfair to say when exactly they started having sex. What was true was that it had increased their productivity. Since December they had tracked down: Rookwood, Macnair, Gideon and Gregory Goyle. They had tried five different locations, two in the French Caribbean and three in France to locate Lestrange. They had not found him yet.

The bloody man seemed to be either one step ahead or in an unknown location.

They had managed to overcome all of these Death Eaters. Hermione even got a little Legilimens experience going into both Goyle senior and junior. Both were unable to object and had little to no Occlumency shields.

“Shite” Severus’ expletive interrupted Hermione making coffee. She paused where she was placing the ground into the coffeemaker and turned to him. He had the Daily Prophet laid in front of him.

““Rita Skeeter announces new book about Severus Snape,” he snarled as he read the title out loud to her.

“Fuck. I forgot about that. Don’t worry, it won’t happen” she said to him. Then she remembered the day that had come out. She quickly snatched the paper from Severus. 

“What?” he asked.

“Oh” she realized. Her mind was racing, going faster than she could speak. She wrapped the paper tight in her hand.

“Hermione, don’t make me go into your head” he asked.

“Well, I remember seeing this headline. That day I went over to Harry’s before work and well, I said we would see what we could do about it. My first idea was to blackmail her. However, when I went back that evening there was a heated argument and nothing about Skeeter was decided. I don’t remember what actually happened to her. I do know I didn’t do anything. It kind of makes sense to me that I must have done it. Not younger me but this me” she said, choosing her words carefully.

“Blackmail how?” he asked.

“That’s the easy part, and how I have her under my thumb, well, have had her for quite a while now” she smiled evilly at this. He raised a single eyebrow asking for more information. Her smiled widened, going from evil to predatory. “She’s an unregistered Animagus” she explained.

“Easy to blackmail. And if I show my face with that knowledge, she’ll drop it” he thought. She nodded.

“Did you teach her at Hogwarts?” Hermione asked. He narrowed his eyes at her.

“She left Hogwarts before I was a student, witch” he said. “Sometimes you forget you’re the time traveler. You’re probably thinking of her and the age she has back in 2006”

“2012” she corrected him automatically. He always usually just said any number starting with 2000. Probably to try and minimize the impact of the age difference. They had already said it was eight years and “Who is there to judge, anyways?” Hermione had said.

“Our plane leaves in two hours” Hermione mentioned, bringing them back to the present.

They both two their cloaks with as many hidden pockets and with shrunk necessities. Hermione had a carry-on bag for show. It was mostly empty except for their clothes.

The plane took them from Heathrow to Bordeaux Airport. They rented a car, both of them knew how to drive, even if her skills could be somewhat improved. The Lestrange Estate, belonging currently to Rodolphus and Rabastan’s great grand aunt Marie Charlotte Lestrange and her descendants. However, the estate was abandoned. When the Parc naturel régional des Landes de Gascogne was established in 1970, the estate was within its boundaries. The family relocated. Their, for lack of a better word, small castle became a shadow, a blink and you’ll miss it mirage. The family kept the structure for its history but moved everything to something closer to the family’s wine field in something more modern.

Hermione and Severus considered he would be alone or with company. At least one French family member that was a good duelist.

Their plan was simple. Polyjuice themselves. Pretend to be Muggle hikers that lost the trial, the park had a lot of attractions for hikers and other summer activities. It was a bit early for the “temps du vacances” and the park to be very full. Yet good enough weather for a couple to that loves hiking to explore. Severus would delegate talking at first to Hermione, as her French was much better than his.

They procured some muggle hair at the airport and changed after they were in route with the rented car. Hermione had to adjust her trainers.

“You look weird with a moustache” she said, her hand reaching to touch it.

“I thought you would like it, dear.” He replied sarcastically. She laughed at that.

“Do you think he will be there?” she asked instead.

“No, but it’s our plan for today. I told you I am more inclined towards the Caribbean” she nodded. She went to grab his hand as they saw the scenery run past.

Soon enough they reached the entrance of the park. There was no admission fee, but a lot of signs about courtesy, littering and other park rules.

“Follow the magic?” she asked him as they got out.

“First we head west, get away from as many muggles as possible” he said. He grabbed her hand for a little while as they walked where other were seeing. She chanced a small kiss to his lips.

“Scratchy” she said wrinkling her nose.

“Do you want to see if everything else is scratchy?” he offered.

“I do not want to see a stranger naked, thank you very much.” She rolled her eyes.

“You seemed quite okay with kissing a stranger just now,” he replied. _Damn, he had a point._ She stayed quiet for a while as they walked, eventually the ground was less flat and their hands disentangled for better balance. As they walked into the woods, she looked back at him. Even though if the body was not his, the mannerism were. The broad walk, the almost still arms. He raised an eyebrow when he noticed her checking him out. She would outright stare at his strong arms when they were at home.

She allowed him a first kiss. Since before she had started to feel an attraction to him that she was trying to deny, more to herself than to him. They did spend a lot of time together.

She knew she was going back to the future to be with Viktor, she kept his ring on her all the time, yet there was always a doubt in her mind about how much and what she was changing in the future. What if there was no them in the future? If he had someone else? If she had stayed alone? She had no idea what the future holds once she went back. She was changing everything. And Severus was changing her. She found a partner in crime with him. They were both bibliophiles, researchers, methodical in their work, perfectionists, yet worked great as a team. Sure, Severus liked experimenting with potions and other things, yet only took calculated risks. Hermione was also cunning like that, as he had reminded her how she managed the basilisk and Umbridge.

She was not forgetting Viktor, she still loved him. Their time together was too long, over so many obstacles, and so much great sex. Sex with Severus was different, less urgent and more powerful, it was hard to explain. She had no idea sex could be as soft as Severus made love to her.

She blushed with her thoughts.

“Getting agitated, Hermione?” he asked as he noticed the heat on her cheeks. She merely nodded. But his voice was enough for her to leave her musings.

“Louis knew a few secrets of this place” he mentioned the quite far from the main branch Louis Lestrange they had found in Martinique in December. He had already shared all of this with her yet thought it useful to mention it.

“How intent was important to finding the place and you had to have seen it before to be able to arrive there” she said.

“Yes, also that the wards were not removed. It is most probable there will be a vigil on the grounds. Maybe muggle” he considered.

“I hope this is not a dead end” she whispered. They continued hiking towards the west, for the moment keeping to the trail.

They made a pause to drink some water.

Then they continued forward. The trail deviated to the north, but they left it and trekked west through the foliage. It seemed trimmed.

“I see it” Severus said after fifteen minutes off the trail.

“Yes?” Hermione asked.

“It’s still far away, but it is tall,” he pointed but she saw nothing. She had not him inside Louis’ head to be able to see the castle. She would be able to see it once they crossed the wards.

They continued in a new direction set as Severus watched the construction that was above the treetops.

There was no one nearby for a long time.

They eventually felt as they crossed the wards.

As soon as they did, a man materialized about fifty meters to their left.

“Bonjour! Comment ca va?” Hermione greeted the man. “Desolée, je pense qui je suis perdu. J’ai été distrait et j’ai quitte le sentier.” She threw a charming smile at the man. He walked towards her. The man seemed confused for a moment. As he got closer, she noticed he had a wand in his hand. She did not lose time and cast a Petrificus Totalus at him.

“So, maybe people don’t ever wonder in here” she said to Severus and shrugged. She looked into his eyes and entered his mind. Wizard, but no training in the Mental Arts. Severus had been four steps behind her. She tripped the wards before he did, they had planned for her to be ahead of him at this stage. By the time he passed the wards, he saw her talking to the man.

He reached for his wand before she cast the jinx. She was faster.

“He works for the Lestranges. Never goes inside and has not seen the one Lestrange we are looking for none of them to be honest. They hire his company as security. He has a rotating schedule with three others.” She informed him. 

“Then let’s go inside” he says. He had probably seen then coming and had come closer before they crossed the wards. Hemione obliviated him of ever seeing them. She was getting more comfortable with that spell.

They left him with his wand just a little far from him and the idea that he slipped and tripped in his mind.

Once she was done with changing his memories, Hermione glanced up.

“Wow, it is impressive” Hermione admitted.

“Yes” Severus agreed. They walked towards the castle looking for an entrance with their wands out.

Severus took the lead since he had some memories of the castle.

He quickly found a door that led to a kitchen. It did not look like anyone lived here.

Hermione cast a quick, silent Homenum Revelio, knowing Severus was probably doing the same thing.

“I can only sense the guard” Hermione admitted.

“Not even house elves” Severus agreed. “Should we venture a bit further in?” he asked.

She shrugged.

“We came all this way,” she agreed.

* * *

May 8, 1999

Hermione smiled into her morning coffee. Breakfast had been delicious. Viktor made breakfast and she had spent the night with him again after a lovely Friday evening in a nice muggle restaurant. They had had Indian.

Right now, they were dozing on her couch. Both had a book in their hands. Hermione was taking a break from work and was reading Jules Verne, Paris au XXe siècle. Viktor was reading about different broom and ice sports practiced in Scandinavia. The telly was ignored in front of them. Hermione had bought a telly for her flat but rarely used it. Harry had come once or twice and those were the only two times the thing had ben turned on.

On the contrary, she had gotten herself a computer. It would not work deep in Gringotts, but it was a useful tool. Emails turned out to be much easier and better than owls and post to communicate with Muggle Clients.

Crookshanks had moved his bed to somewhere with as much sun as possible and was sunbathing. He had already gotten used to the addition of Viktor, so long as he was allowed to move to sleep in bed with them somewhere around five am.

Viktor’s hand was starting to draw circles on her thigh.

She smiled at him. He was insatiable and she loved it.

She placed her book down and swiftly moved to straddle him, he quickly closed his book as well.

She placed his hand again on her thigh. She kissed him deeply.

He grabbed her butt and pushed her towards him. Soon a groan emerged from him.

Followed by a tap.

“Bloody owl” she complained. She kissed him softly on his cheek before rising and opening the window.

Batman swooped in. Harry had gotten a black owl with brown markings a few months after he finished grieving for Hedwig.

“I don’t want to replace her, but it’s a necessity” he had admitted begrudgingly.

“She’s lovely” she had said when she first met the bird.

“He” Harry corrected her.

“What’s his name going to be?” she asked.

“I haven’t decided yet” he admitted

“He’s marking are predominantly black rather than brown, and that is unusual for an owl” she mentioned, and reached to stroke the bird. He preened and allowed her. He replied with a small hoot.

“Batman” Harry said. And it stuck.

So, she reached over to the window to open it for Batman to come in.

She took the small roll of parchment Harry had sent.

“I’ve been a terribly bad friend and have not seen you for over a month. How about lunch today? My treat” the missive was short. She read it out loud for Viktor’s benefit.

“I want to stay in with you” she said, almost pouting. “I’ll tell him that it’s going to have to be some other day.”

“Why not tell him to come here? We make for three or more instead of just two, and still have privacy” Viktor suggested.

“You have a game tomorrow, you’re not spending the night, and we had plans…” she trailed off.

“I don’t mind. Harry’s okay with me?” he asked.

“Um, well, I have not seen any of them since Ron’s overreaction over the photo in March.” She admitted. “I’ve been busy, you know this!” she exclaimed. And the little spare time she wanted to dedicate to him.

“All the more reason. We can order in or I can cook” he offered.

“Oh, Harry is paying for this” she said acquiescing him. Batman looked back and forth between the two of them, clearly waiting for a decision and a response.

“I’ll tell him to be here at noon” she agreed. She wrote a short note telling him to come to her flat at twelve. She gave the note to the owl and since she had no treats nearby simply pointed them out to him in the kitchen. He served himself one and then left.

“Now, where were we?” she asked, her hands reaching between this neck and shoulders.

“I suggest we shower if he is going to be here in an hour and ten minutes” he said.   
  


“Together?” she insisted.

“Only if I can fuck you in the shower” he replied bluntly.

“That was exactly the point I was making” she replied.

He lifted her bridal style and took her to the bathroom to make the most of their time.

______

Hermione was putting on her shoes when the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it!” she said, now actually excited to see Harry. Viktor was putting on his trousers. She had clothes at his place. He had clothes at her place. It made sense.

She reached the door and opened it with a smile. She saw Harry, just Harry at her doorstep. She sighed in a relief she did not know she had been holding. No Ginny, no Ron.

“And why did you have to announce that you would get the door?” Harry asked, leaning over her to check out if there was someone in the kitchen.

“Viktor’s here” she said, and it came out naturally.

“What?” Harry exclaimed.

“Viktor” she said.

“He’s joining us for lunch?” he said, a little dumbfounded.

“No, silly, you are joining us. Though, we thought it was only fair you paid, if we decide to order in.” she said, crossing her arms. Harry passed through the door and Hermione closed it behind him. Harry turned looking for him but did not find him.

“Wait, so,” he shook his head a moment to choose his words.

Hermione sat in one of her couches. Viktor then emerged fully dressed though with wet hair from the part where her room and spare room were.

“Hello, Harry” he smiled and offered his hand.

“Viktor, it’s great to see you,” he answered, taking his hand and pulling him in for a hug. “It’s been a while”

“Are you guys dating?” he stage whispered to her as he sat beside her.

“No” Viktor answered quickly.

“We’re, sort of, past that, and well,” she turned to Viktor. “I haven’t said this out loud to someone else yet” she admitted and laughed. “He’s my boyfriend”

Viktor sat on the other side of Harry. He nodded also.

“So, that picture you told me to tell Ron was fake?” he said.

“I never said that. I asked you to take care of it. Did you think it was fake?” she laughed.

“Damn paparazzi, after that day we have been more careful. Sometimes if we both can we do a weekend outside of Britain” he told him.

“Well, I told Ron it was fake, that made him more understanding” he admitted. He turned to face Viktor on the couch, and despite both Viktor and Hermione being older that him he suddenly considered himself Hermione’s big brother:

“Don’t hurt her!” Harry exclaimed suddenly.

“I wouldn’t dare. Have you seen her angry?” he asked Harry.

“Wai—

“Oh yes. I wouldn’t to be on her ba-

“Once you both are quite done.” She exclaimed. “Viktor, should we order in Italian or Mexican?” she asked him. She already knew what type of food he preferred.

“Italian sounds good. A nice gnocchi” he smiled at her.

“Oh, and Harry? I have not seen her angry, so we will talk later” she placed her hands on her face in defeat. She stood from the couch that barely fitted the three of them, even with her small frame, and reached to get beers for everyone.

“Harry, you understand why we like our privacy, right?” she said with her back to him.

“Yeah” he admitted. “At least we already took care of Rita Skeeter.” He said. She assumed he meant something he did.

“I hate her” Viktor said. “What did she do now?” he asked

“She was going to publish a book on Snape.”

“Not anymore, then?” Hermione asked.

“Seems not anymore” he smiled.

“She was a pain in my butt during the TriWizard Tournament” Harry remembered.

“For all of us,” Viktor admitted.

“True” Hermione said. She hoped whatever Harry had done guaranteed at least one less reporter to worry about.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” Harry asked Hermione as he accepted the beer for him.

“I’ve been busy” she said simply.

“Oh” he said.

“With work, Harry, get your mind out of the gutter. As has Viktor.” She gently tapped his head.

“Well, I want to be the first to know whenever you guys get engaged” he said. They both laughed.

“All right. Agreed” Viktor said, offering him his hand to shake. “How about Italian, love?” Viktor turned to Hermione.

“Yes!” Harry said excitedly. “Oh, you were asking Hermione”

Hermione laughed and went to the kitchen to find the phonebook with the muggle restaurats that delivered. She left them to themselves. They were both seekers, they are friends. It was a surprise but now its over.

“Hello?” she asked into the phone. She winked at Viktor from where she was, “Yes, I would like to place an order.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! This last chapter was very difficult to write, plus I have terribly busy in real life. Work never stops.


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